Massive Ordnance Air-burst Bomb, or MOAB

[Lancer]

http://www.themercury.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5936,6047981%5E401,00.html

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/853354/posts

Biggest non-nuke bomb ever. The Rooskies have one, but ours is bigger.

In a related story...The town of Moab near Salt Lake is *****ing about the common name, but eh.

http://abc.net.au/news/newsitems/s795414.html

Can take out massed armor, headquarters units, dug-in infantry. The hope is that a few of these things go off and the Iraqi army will surrender in droves.

[Buck Birdseed]

You're a bit of a Psychopath, aren't you, Lancer?

[Lancer]

Prefer not to know BB?

[Sandman]

Here we have a genuine weapon of mass destruction, as opposed to dodgy stuff like anthrax and VX.

[uh Clem]

Wow. It's ours and it's the biggest. I'm becoming engorged.

[Urban Ranger]

Good against soft targets, lousy against hard and hardened targets.

[BeBMan]

Most interesting from the second link:

The new FAS bomb, called MOAB (Massive Ordnance Air Burst) gets around some of these problems by borrowing (or licensing) from Russia research in this area.

[Urban Ranger]

Indeed, GWB now has the biggest Cheney.

[Dis]

I think I heard about this. They say it produces a mushroom cloud similar to a nuke.

I think they are just telling us it's a conventional weapon when it really is a nuke

[Az]

, immensly and nonselectively destructive, name is a biblical reference, is going to be used against a muslim country.

[loinburger]

The new bomb's purpose would be the same as the daisy cutter - "to create a massive explosion"

Oh, my sides are splitting!

In other news:

The new gun's purpose would be the same as the previous model's - "to shoot holes in people"

[Az]

[Dinner]

IIRC the MOAD was originally developed during the Vietnam War. It was designed to dropped on the thick triple canopy jungle so that the Air Cav (helicopter mounted infantry) could create an instant landing zone. Reportedly it did an excellent job and instantly cleared a LZ which was a half mile wide. Later, the MOAB was also used to create a Km wide "Kill Zone" in places the enemy had deeply fortified combat positions.

Apparently, the blast is so big that the shock wave causes people in the kill zone to rupture their internal organs. That meant it was perfect for use when Taliban & Al Qaeda units had dug into hill sides during the war in Afganistan. The MOAD is so big it won't fit through normal bomb bay doors and instead it is loaded onto a C-130 and pushed out of the rear loading hatch.

Pushing it out of the back door doesn't sound like the most processes means of delivery but I guess they only have to get with in 1 Km of the target so it doesn't matter.

[Spiffor]

"Ours is bigger"
Sooooooooooo consistent with every prejudices against Americans. You really are a relief to every antiamerican of these board

[Lord Merciless]

You can't use this thing on enemy cities.