Thread: MOAB Bomb Dropped in Afghanistan

Breaking: US military has dropped most powerful non-nuclear US bomb, MOAB, targeting ISIS in Nangarhar, Afghanistan -- first ever combat use

Originally Posted by rickschoppers

Breaking: US military has dropped most powerful non-nuclear US bomb, MOAB, targeting ISIS in Nangarhar, Afghanistan -- first ever combat use

Im drunk and this sounds serious.

Googling.....

It does seem to be happening under Trumps watch, testing out all these military weapons as target practice.

Originally Posted by rickschoppers

Breaking: US military has dropped most powerful non-nuclear US bomb, MOAB, targeting ISIS in Nangarhar, Afghanistan -- first ever combat use

Got a link?

got to use it before it expires

it is expensive to decomission ordinance

Yes Baldrick but how are targets selected?

https://twitter.com/DavidWright_CNN?...Ctwgr%5Eauthor

For real, this is all I could find here in TH right now.

CNN Twitter deal.

Click & Watch. Just a report.

Originally Posted by wasabi

Yes Baldrick but how are targets selected?

Trump's "Wheel of Targets", with Ivanka as the cohost?

US drops 'largest non-nuclear bomb' in Afghanistan in area populated by Isis members | The Independent

^ That's the Pentagon checking out the news of the bombing. Trump probably forgot to pass it by them first.

Originally Posted by CSFFan

Originally Posted by rickschoppers

Breaking: US military has dropped most powerful non-nuclear US bomb, MOAB, targeting ISIS in Nangarhar, Afghanistan -- first ever combat use

Got a link?

First on CNN: US drops largest non-nuclear bomb in Afghanistan - CNNPolitics.com

It is all over the internet.

Originally Posted by rickschoppers

It is all over the internet.

Damn now it is. I was hitting every keyword in your OP and getting nothing.

The GBU-43/B Massive Ordnance Air Blast (MOAB pronounced /ˈmoʊ.æb/, commonly known as the Mother of All Bombs) is a large-yield conventional (non-nuclear) bomb, developed for the United States military by Albert L. Weimorts, Jr. of the Air Force Research Laboratory.[1] At the time of development, it was touted as the most powerful non-nuclear weapon ever designed.[2] The bomb was designed to be delivered by a C-130 Hercules, primarily the MC-130E Combat Talon I or MC-130H Combat Talon II variants.

Since then, Russia has tested its "Father of All Bombs", which is claimed to be four times as powerful as the MOAB.[3]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GBU-43...ance_Air_Blast

Hopefully it will have killed less innocents civilians than Assad's gas attack...

I'm sure no innocent women and children were killed and the dropping of this bomb will bring nothing but peace.

What did the Afghans make of its performance, where they impressed, they've got 4 decades of experience of things being dropped on them.

Shock waves for a mile in each direction. For sure innocent civilians will be killed. Probably more innocent civilians than ISIS fighters.

History Channel info.

Would fuck up a solid square mile apparently.

Serious shit though.

^^
Or, ISIS has lost some real estate to operate in which is what it sounds like the mission was. There was evidently a large complex of tunnels and caves that allowed ISIS to move around freely that were very difficult to combat.

I am hoping any collateral damage will be minimal or non-existant, but I am sure ISIS will claim there was, even if there wasn't.

The U.S. military said it conducted a strike on an ISIS-K tunnel complex in the Achin district of Nangarhar province, Afghanistan, on Thursday.

A U.S. aircraft dropped a GBU-43 Massive Ordnance Air Blast, also known as a MOAB, as part of ongoing efforts to defeat ISIS-Khorasan in Afghanistan, according to a statement from U.S. Central Command.

The strike aimed to minimize the risk to Afghan and U.S. forces conducting clearing operations in the area, the release said.

"As ISIS-K's losses have mounted, they are using IEDs, bunkers and tunnels to thicken their defense," Gen. John W. Nicholson, the top commander in Afghanistan, said in the release. "This is the right munition to reduce these obstacles and maintain the momentum of our offensive against ISIS-K."

The release said the U.S. took "every precaution" to avoid civilian casualties.

DoD identifies Green Beret killed while fighting ISIS in Afghanistan

The strike comes just days after a Special Forces soldier was killed in Nangarhar province. Staff Sgt. Mark De Alencar, of 7th Special Forces Group, was killed Saturday by enemy small arms fire while his unit was conducting counter-ISIS operations, according to the Defense Department.

The fact that the U.S. dropped the MOAB in the same province where De Alencar was killed is probably not a coincidence, said Bill Roggio, of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies.

“There might have been a degree of payback here as well,” Roggio told Military Times. “There’s certainly nothing wrong with that, especially if you’re killing your enemy.”

ISIS has had a strong province in Nangarhar and three other Afghan provinces for years, said Roggio, also editor of the Long War Journal. The fact that the U.S. dropped the MOAB indicates that ISIS remains a threat in the area, he said. The weapon is also effective against enemy fighters who hide in caves.

The GBU-43/B Massive Ordnance Air Blast bomb prototype moments before it makes contact March 11, 2003. The detonation created a mushroom cloud that could be seen from up to 20 miles away.

“What it does is basically suck out all of the oxygen and lights the air on fire,” Roggio said. “It’s a way to get into areas where conventional bombs can’t reach.”

The 30-foot, 21,600-pound, GPS-guided MOAB was designed before the Iraq War to try to pressure Saddam Hussein, but none were ever used in the war. The first operational MOAB was deployed April 11, 2003, but by that point, coalition troops had entered Baghdad and the Iraqi army had crumbled. According to an Air Force release published on the fifth anniversary of its March 11, 2003, test, it produced a mushroom cloud that could be seen from 20 miles away. It is so big, it doesn’t fit into bombers and instead must be carried in the back of a C-130.

After the initial phase of the war passed without it being used, it became a museum piece and was added to the Air Armament Museum at Eglin Air Force Base in Florida in 2004. That MOAB on display was an empty shell, but the Air Force said at the time that it could be refilled with explosive and put back into service.

The U.S. mission in Afghanistan is twofold: to train and advise Afghan forces battling the Taliban, and target terrorists affiliated with al-Qaida and the Islamic State. The latter are centralized in Nangarhar province along the Pakistan border, where Thursday’s strike occurred.

The massive U.S. attack comes as several regional powers, including Russia, China, Iran and Pakistan, have begun to exert more influence — in some cases to undermine NATO's objectives.

On Wednesday, the White House announced it is conducting a broader strategy review intended to establish the United States' next steps for the 15-year Afghanistan campaign. As part of that, the president intends to dispatch his national security adviser, Army Lt. Gen. H.R. McMaster, to “find out how we can make progress alongside our Afghan partners.”

https://www.airforcetimes.com/articl...in-afghanistan

Originally Posted by buriramboy

I'm sure no innocent women and children were killed and the dropping of this bomb will bring nothing but peace.

More importantly... how much does it cost to replace?

Originally Posted by Neo

More importantly... how much does it cost to replace?

Highly doubt this is the reason for deployment.

Clearly it was something like:

"Mother of all bombs on ISIS" Message.

A nice message to Kim.