High altitude carpet-bombing with much smaller 500-to-2,000-pound (230 to 910 kg) bombs delivered via heavy bombers such as the B-52, B-2, or the B-1 is also highly effective at covering large areas. The MOAB is not a penetrator weapon and is primarily an air burst bomb intended for soft to medium surface targets covering extended areas and targets in a contained environment such as a deep canyon or within a cave system. GPS satellite-guidance is used to guide bombs to their targets. Shortly after launch the drogues are released and the bomb falls without the use of a retarding parachute. The bombs are dropped by deploying drogue parachutes, which also extract the cradle and platform from the aircraft. GBU-43s are delivered from C-130 cargo aircraft, inside which they are carried on cradles resting on airdrop platforms. Pentagon officials suggested MOAB might be used as an anti-personnel weapon, as part of the " shock and awe" strategy integral to the 2003 invasion of Iraq. Its success as a weapon of intimidation led to the decision to develop the MOAB. Decades later, the BLU-82 was used in Afghanistan in November 2001 against the Taliban. The basic principle resembles that of the BLU-82 Daisy Cutter, which was used to clear heavily wooded areas in the Vietnam War. Design and development Al Weimorts (right), the creator of the GBU-43/B Massive Ordnance Air Blast bomb, and Joseph Fellenz, lead model maker, look over the prototype before it was painted and tested. The MOAB was first deployed in combat in the 13 April 2017 airstrike against an Islamic State - Khorasan Province tunnel complex in Achin District, Afghanistan. The bomb's name and nickname were inspired by Iraqi president Saddam Hussein's invocation of the "mother of all battles" ( Umm al-Ma'arik) during the 1991 Gulf War. The bomb is designed to be delivered by a C-130 Hercules, primarily the MC-130E Combat Talon I or MC-130H Combat Talon II variants. ![]() At the time of development, it was said to be the most powerful non- nuclear weapon in the American arsenal. The GBU-43/B Massive Ordnance Air Blast ( MOAB / ˈ m oʊ æ b/, colloquially intended as the snowclone " Mother of all bombs") is a large-yield bomb, developed for the United States military by Albert L. GBU-43/B on display at the Air Force Armament Museum, Eglin Air Force Base, Florida.
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