The United States used the GBU-43 high-explosive aerial bomb, called the “mother of all bombs” (MOAB), in Afghanistan.
For the first time in history, the US Air Force used in combat conditions the super-powerful non-nuclear bomb GBU-43, known as the “mother of all bombs,” to bomb the fortified positions of a terrorist organization banned in Russia Islamic State in Nangarhar province in Afghanistan.
This was reported by CNN.
According to CNN sources, a US military aircraft remained in Afghanistan for a long time "awaiting an order to hit a suitable target."
According to preliminary information, the target of the airstrike was ISIS tunnels and caves. The US military is now assessing the damage caused to the terrorists.
White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer also officially confirmed information about the airstrike in Afghanistan at a special briefing. “At 19:00 local time in Afghanistan, the United States used a GBU-43 aerial bomb to destroy a system of tunnels and caves used by terrorists to move,” Spicer announced.
According to official representative White House, "The United States takes the fight against terrorism extremely seriously, and therefore it must deny terrorists the ability to move freely to continue their activities."
Spicer also stressed that the United States has done everything possible to avoid civilian casualties. However, he declined to go into detail regarding the details of the operation and referred questions to the Pentagon.
The Pentagon later released an official statement about the operation. The US Department of Defense confirmed the previously announced information, clarifying that the purpose of the airstrike was “to minimize the risks for subsequent ground operations by American and Afghan troops.”
"ISIS's losses continue. They use explosives, tunnels and bunkers to strengthen their defenses. These are the weapons that will weaken these obstacles and allow us to continue offensive operation against ISIS," said General John Nicholson, commander of US forces in Afghanistan.
The Pentagon emphasized that the US military used all precautions to eliminate the possibility of civilian casualties in an airstrike. “The US Army will continue the offensive operation until ISIS positions in Afghanistan are destroyed,” the US Department of Defense summarized.
Journalists emphasize that this airstrike was the first use of the GBU-43 in combat conditions in US history. A video of the tests of the “mother of all bombs” was published on the Internet.
tests of GBU-43 "mother of all bombs"
As Pentagon officials said in 2003, the bomb was designed for “psychological operations” in Iraq. Her powerful explosion was supposed to force the Iraqi troops to surrender.
After the strike, the Pentagon released new video of the test of the "mother of all bombs" - GBU-43/B - in 2003. The recording was published by CNN on its Twitter.
The US tested the "mother of all bombs" about 14 years ago, but it was first used in combat on Thursday, April 13, 2017.
The American president called the strike against Islamic State positions in eastern Afghanistan a “very, very successful mission.”
CNBC channel reports this.
Trump also noted that he is very proud of the US military.
"Everyone knows perfectly well what happened and what I gave instructions to my armed forces. We have the greatest military in the world, and they are doing their job as usual," the US President said.
"If you look at what's happened in the last eight weeks and compare it to what's actually happened in the last eight years, there's a huge difference," he said.
Trump did not provide more detailed information about the operation.
GBU-43/B Massive Ordnance Air Blast(heavy explosive munition; MOAB), also referred to as Mother Of All Bombs ("mother of all bombs")- American high explosive aerial bomb, created in 2002-2003.
MOAB is one of the largest aerial bombs equipped with a satellite guidance system.
There are 14 MOABs in the US arsenal.
The first news of the bomb dates back to the early 2000s. In mid-2002, the Air Force Research Laboratory received an order to improve the BLU-82 bomb, in particular, to equip it with a satellite guidance system, which also forced it to improve the aerodynamic qualities of the ammunition.
By March 2003, the new bomb was ready. On March 7, the first independent flight of the MOAB without a warhead was carried out. On March 11, the MOAB was tested at the Eglin Air Force Base in Florida, and the second test took place there on November 22.
Contrary to popular misconception, the MOAB is not a volumetric detonating (also erroneously called a “vacuum”) bomb. This is a FAB - a high explosive bomb.
MOAB has a length of 9.17 m and a diameter of 102.9 cm, the bomb weighs 9.5 tons, of which 8.4 are Australian-made H-6 explosive - a mixture of hexogen, TNT and aluminum powder - which is 1 more powerful than TNT ,35 times.
The force of the explosion is 11 tons of TNT, the radius of destruction is about 140 meters, partial destruction occurs at a distance of up to 1.5 km from the epicenter.
MOAB is equipped with a KMU-593/B guidance system, which includes inertial and satellite navigation systems.
During testing, the bomb was dropped from a Lockheed C-130 Hercules transport aircraft. Inside the aircraft, the MOAB is mounted on a platform, which, together with the bomb, is pulled out through the hatch using a parachute. The MOAB then quickly detaches from the platform and parachute to maintain speed, after which it begins to independently target the target.
A bomb of this type was once sent to Iraq, but was never used there during military operations.
What happened?
According to a statement by the top US military command, on April 13, 2017, American aircraft dropped the largest non-nuclear bomb GBU-43/B MOAB (Massive Ordnance Air Burst - heavy high-explosive munition) on fortified areas of Islamic State terrorists 1 in eastern Afghanistan. The charge was reportedly dropped from an MC-130 aircraft.
2
Where exactly was the blow struck?
The US said the strike took place in the Achin district of Nangarhar province near the border with Pakistan in the east.
The Afghan province of Nangarhar is, in fact, the main enclave of the activities of the Islamic State terrorists: on the territory of this province there is a self-proclaimed “wilayat of Khorasan”, which is subordinate to the IS 1 terrorists in Raqqa. The enclave has been conducting permanent fighting with government troops, American troops and the Taliban terrorist group banned in the Russian Federation 1.
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What are the terrorist losses?
According to the Afghan Ministry of Defense, the strike destroyed an ISIS terrorist hideout and a complex of tunnels located at great depths. In addition, according to information from Kabul, 36 militants were killed. It is clarified that civilians were not harmed during the bombing - however, information about the consequences of the strike is still being clarified, and the data on the losses of militants has not been verified and may be subsequently supplemented.
In short, neither Kabul nor Washington knows exactly how many ISIS terrorists laid down their violent heads from the “mother of all bombs.”
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What kind of new attack is this?
The super-heavy bomb GBU-43/B MOAB (this abbreviation is popularly translated as Mother Of All Bombs) was created in the States in 2002-2003 and is considered one of the largest aerial bombs. The projectile is equipped with a satellite guidance system.
Initially, the “mother of all bombs” was created on the basis of the previous US super-heavy projectile - BLU-82. On March 7, 2003, the MOAB made its first solo flight without a warhead, and on March 11, the MOAB was tested at the Eglin Air Force Base test site in Florida.
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What are the technical parameters and power of the bomb?
The MOAB is 9.17 m long and 102.9 cm in diameter, and the bomb weighs 9.5 tons, of which 8.4 tons are H-6 explosive, a mixture of hexogen, TNT and aluminum powder developed in Australia.
The force of the explosion is 11 tons of TNT. For comparison, during the atomic bombing of Hiroshima in 1945, the “Baby” bomb was more than a thousand times more powerful (from 13 thousand tons). The radius of the projectile is about 140 meters, the blast wave reaches a distance of up to 1.5 km from the epicenter of the explosion.
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How much territory has the Islamic State captured in Afghanistan?
The IS terrorists cannot yet compete in the number of territories captured with the main sources of problems for the Afghan government - the Taliban. Direct control of the Islamic State is observed on a small piece of land near the Pakistani border - but quite close to Kabul.
Objectively, the “vilayat of Khorasan”, due to its remoteness from the main events in Syria and Iraq, does not have constant supply from the outside and is forced to act independently, periodically organizing raids on government military bases and neighboring villages. In addition, the Khorasan Vilayat maintains control over poppy plantations in Afghanistan and has a certain stake in Afghan drug trafficking.
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How did the US authorities react?
US President Donald Trump praised the US military for carrying out the bombing, calling the operation a "very successful" mission.
"We have amazing commanders in the army and the greatest armed forces in the world. They did their job. This was another very successful operation," Trump said.
US authorities also noted that the target of the attack was not only the tunnels themselves. According to White House press secretary Sean Spicer, the free movement of terrorists allowed them to threaten US military advisers and Afghan forces in the area. However, Spicer did not answer the question whether this bomb will be used somewhere else: in Syria or the DPRK.
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How did Russian officials and famous people react?
According to the Federation Council, the US authorities resorted to using the most powerful non-nuclear bomb in order to test its effectiveness. It is also possible that a possible purpose for using the bomb was a demonstration of American weapons.
Meanwhile, living in the Russian Federation former employee American intelligence services Edward Snowden believes that the destroyed ISIS “tunnel complex” was built with funds from the United States itself
“And we are bombing these networks of Mujahideen tunnels in Afghanistan? We ourselves paid for them,” Snowden wrote on his Twitter page.
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How much does one such bomb cost? And how many such “mothers” do the States still have?
The price of one GBU-43/B MOAB bomb, according to official data, is about $16 million. For comparison - American missiles The BGM-109 Tomahawk, which the United States recently fired at the Shayrat airbase in Syria, costs about $1.87 million.
In total, the United States has 14 more bombs of this type in service.
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Is there really no one who can find the answer to such a huge bomb?
You will be surprised, but Russia has the answer to the “mother of all bombs”. After the strike on Afghanistan, the American media recalled that the Russian Federation has more powerful non-nuclear weapons than the American GBU-43 bomb. This is an aircraft high-power vacuum bomb (AVBPM), known as the “daddy of all bombs.”
More compact compared to the American "mother", the Russian "father" is much more powerful - the ammunition capacity is approximately 40 tons in TNT equivalent, four times more than that of the GBU-43. At the same time, during the explosion, explosive dust ignites, which fills the space and destroys all objects in its path at a distance of 3 km from the epicenter.
1 Terrorist organization whose activities are prohibited on the territory of the Russian Federation
Illustration copyright Getty Images Image caption The "mother of all bombs" was first tested in Florida in 2003
The American military in Nangarhar province in eastern Afghanistan used one of its most powerful conventional (that is, non-nuclear) aerial bombs for the first time in combat conditions.
Officially, the bomb is called GBU-43/B MOAB. The abbreviation MOAB officially means “Massive Ordnance Air Last” (heavy high-explosive ammunition), but in everyday life it is often deciphered as “Mother of All Bombs” - “mother of all bombs”. There is a version that this nickname appeared first, and the official name was matched to the corresponding abbreviation later.
The target of the bomb attack was a network of tunnels built by Islamic State militants in the Achinsk region of the province (the IS group is banned in Russia and many other countries).
Since MOAB is a non-nuclear weapon, its use does not require mandatory presidential approval.
This is a really large munition - nine meters long and weighing 9800 kg. Even the largest combat aircraft are not equipped to carry such a bomb: it is carried on an MC-130 transport aircraft, thrown through a cargo hatch, guided to its target using GPS and detonated in the air shortly before contact with the ground.
It is thrown out together with the cargo pallet (as for standard containers), after which the parachute on it opens, so that the bomb slides off it. Four fins serve to stabilize and direct the flight of the projectile.
Main damaging factor is a powerful shock wave that spreads over a radius of more than a kilometer from the explosion site. The impact power is equivalent to the explosion of approximately 8 tons of TNT.
The slim aluminum body is specially designed to maximize blast radius.
Illustration copyright Getty Images Image caption MOAB before testingThis is an "anti-bunker weapon" - it is designed to destroy underground objects and tunnels. The bomb was initially developed for use during the Iraq War: its first tests were carried out in 2003, but the projectile has not yet been used in combat conditions. Each bomb is reported to cost $16 million.
Interestingly, this is still not the most powerful non-nuclear bomb in the American arsenal. The most powerful of these is called the Massive Ordnance Penetrator, or MOP, which is also designed to destroy bunkers and weighs more than 13 tons.
Russia also has powerful non-nuclear aerial bombs. The most famous of them received the nickname “daddy of all bombs”; it was tested in 2007.
- Russia tested a super-powerful bomb
This is volumetric explosion ammunition (they are also called, not always correctly, thermobaric or vacuum bombs; the action is based on the same principle, for example). It explodes in two stages: first there is a low-power explosion, spraying a cloud of flammable material. This cloud then ignites and burns out instantly. A sudden drop in pressure creates a shock wave of enormous destructive force.
Weapons of the “mother of all bombs” type also have a significant psychological effect on the enemy: a powerful explosion is designed to instill panic.
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The US dropped the "mother of all bombs" on AfghanistanOne of the predecessors of this type of weapon was the American BLU-82 Daisy Cutter bomb, which was used since the Vietnam War. This 6,800 kg bomb was also dropped from a transport aircraft and felled forest in an area large enough to turn it into a helipad.
The MOAB bomb was developed by the Alabama-based aviation company Dynetics.
Illustration copyright USAF/Getty Images Image caption Fins help the bomb move towards its targetYesterday, the United States used for the first time in combat one of the most powerful non-nuclear aerial bombs in the world - the GBU-43/B. It was dropped from an MC-130 aircraft to destroy tunnels and caves in eastern Afghanistan used by the Islamic State terrorist group. According to preliminary estimates, more than 36 terrorists were killed.
Australian explosives
The official name of the bomb is Massive Ordnance Air Blast. The abbreviation MOAB is often deciphered as Mother Of All Bombs - “mother of all bombs”.
GBU-43/B, of course, not nuclear weapon, but, unlike it, it can actually be used to intimidate the enemy. The bomb weighs about 10 tons, 8.4 of which is H6 explosive.
By the way, BB is of Australian origin. This explosive consists of a mixture of RDX (cyclotrimethylenetrinitramine), TNT and aluminum powder.
The main feature of this explosive is resistance to damage and safety in handling. Therefore, it is also used in torpedoes and sea mines.
All living things within a radius of 140 m die
The explosion force of the GBU-43/B is 11 tons of TNT. Within a radius of 140 meters from the epicenter of the explosion, not only enemy infantry, but also tanks are destroyed. Partial destruction occurs at a distance of 1.5 km from the epicenter.
The explosion of this bomb is a powerful psychological weapon: surviving enemy fighters receive severe injuries and concussions, being out of action for a long time.
The image is for illustrative purposes only.
The GBU-43/B was created by renowned design engineer Albert Wimorts in 2002. In 2005, he died of brain cancer without ever seeing combat use of his invention.
A total of 15 such bombs were manufactured at the McAlister arms plant. The United States wanted to use one of them in Iraq as part of Operation Enduring Freedom, but by the time it was delivered, active hostilities were over.
High accuracy
Because of large sizes(length 9.17 m and diameter 102.9 cm) the bomb is dropped from the cargo compartment of a special MC-130 Combat Talon aircraft, developed for special forces by Lockheed on the basis of the C-130 Hercules multi-purpose transport aircraft.
Inside the aircraft, the bomb is mounted on a special platform, which, together with the bomb, is pulled out through the hatch using a parachute. After this, in order not to lose speed, the GBU-43/B detaches from the platform and parachute, beginning an independent fall towards the target.
The bomb is equipped with a KMU-593/B guidance system, which includes satellite and inertial navigation systems. Array stabilizers allow the GBU-43 to glide and engage targets with high precision.
Not the biggest, not the most powerful
Although the GBU-43/B proudly bears the title of Mother Of All Bombs, it is actually not the largest or most powerful bomb in the world. The Americans have an adjustable anti-bunker aerial bomb GBU-57.
GBU-57.
It weighs 13,600 kg, although it carries very little explosives - 2,700 kg, but is capable of breaking through a 60-meter layer of concrete. The GBU-57 has laser guidance with GPS support, and will be delivered to the target by the B-2A Spirit strategic stealth bomber.
And the most powerful non-nuclear bomb was tested by the Russians. There is also the “daddy of all bombs” - the high-power aviation vacuum bomb (AVBPM). It was dropped from a Tu-160 strategic bomber on September 11, 2007. The AVBPM weighs less than the GBU-43/B, but the explosion power is higher - 44 tons of TNT versus 11 tons for the MOAB. The temperature at the center of the explosion of the Russian AVBPM is 2 times higher than that of the MOAB, and the damage radius is also 2 times greater (300 meters versus 140). The power of the Russian bomb is comparable to that of a tactical nuclear weapon.
Residents of the Achin district of Nangarhar province in eastern Afghanistan describe the explosion of the largest American non-nuclear bomb, the GBU-43/B Massive Ordnance Air Blast (MOAB), as the most epic explosion they have ever seen. "This bomb was dropped yesterday at about seven o'clock, for almost half an hour the whole area was on fire, everything was destroyed there," Malek Younes, an eyewitness to the attack, told DW. Younes knows what he's talking about: He's lived through a number of major bombings over the decades following the entry of US troops into Afghanistan in 2001 and the fall of the Taliban regime.
An American airstrike killed more than 90 militants of the Islamic State (IS) terrorist group. "The underground shelters of the Islamic State have been completely destroyed. There are no civilian casualties; many residents left the area even before the arrival of the Islamic State," a representative of the local governor, Ataullah Khogianai, explained to DW.
Reasons for use
"The Mother of All Bombs," as MOAB is also known, is well suited for destroying targets beyond the reach of standard bombs, said Bill Roggio of the Washington-based Foundation for Defense of Democracies. Over 8400 kilograms explosive interacts with oxygen in the affected area and leads to a large fire. The Trump administration's first use of these weapons in combat raises a number of questions.
Is the use of MOAB justified by the level of threat to American interests that IS poses in Afghanistan? And was the $15 million bombing that killed 90 jihadists really aimed solely at ISIS, or did it have a broader symbolic meaning?
Former general Afghan army Attikulla Amarkhail is inclined to the second option. “I know the region that was hit very well, and I don’t believe that the Americans needed such a large bomb to kill relatively few militants,” he suggested in a conversation with DW. According to him, the use of a bomb weighing 11 tons against 90 opponents is disproportionate if this is not associated with the desire to achieve other goals at the same time, Amarkhail stated.
IS in Afghanistan
According to US estimates, there are about 600-800 IS militants in Afghanistan. Compared to Iraq and Syria, this is a modest figure. The first reports of jihadists in Afghanistan began to appear in early 2015, and a year earlier the Afghan government and US military warned that IS was recruiting fighters in the country, taking advantage of the vacuum created by the weakening of the Taliban.
In the Achin district of Nangarhar province in eastern Afghanistan, this problem is most acute. The situation here is somewhat similar to Iraq and Syria: IS partially controls this region, kills dissatisfied people, robs houses and intimidates the local population through radio broadcasts. It is not surprising that residents of the area have long been calling for the fight against ISIS. “If ISIS is not stopped here, the jihadists will become a threat to the whole of Afghanistan and to other countries in the region,” one of them complained in a conversation with DW a couple of years ago.
Context
According to Woodrow Wilson International Center expert Michael Kugelman, the use of the “mother of all bombs” is Washington’s message to the jihadists: “The United States will pursue ISIS, no matter where the Islamists are - in Afghanistan or anywhere else.” However, the current strike is unlikely to be followed by new operations, the expert believes, because the United States and the Afghan army have already achieved great success in the fight against IS in the region in recent months. “It seems to me that dropping the bomb should have allowed us to eliminate those militants who survived the previous military operations of the Americans and Afghans and took refuge in underground shelters,” Kugelman emphasized.
A show of force in front of Russia and China?
According to observers, the use of the largest non-nuclear bomb could also be a kind of warning. It is noteworthy that this happened on the eve of the conference on Afghanistan in Moscow. Representatives from 12 countries, including Afghanistan, China, India, Iran and Pakistan, attended the talks, but the United States declined the invitation to consultations.
By using the "mother of all bombs," Washington could send a signal that the reduction in US activity in Afghanistan should not be seen as a sign of weakness. "The date of dropping the bomb is critical. The United States is demonstrating its military capabilities to Russia and China," says former Afghan general Amarkhail. At the same time, he fears that Islamists will use this American operation for their propaganda and recruitment of new supporters, which will have a negative impact on security in the area.