MOAB

check this link:
http://www.thatvideosite.com/video/3151

 

jez the did the US think they didn't have enough WMDs

 

One of the guys I shoot with worked on that project at Eglin AFB. He said it's "impressive".

 

Well its American Ingenuity

 

I think it's probobly an attmpt to avoid use of WMD, it all depends on your definiton. The 300 yard (meter) blast radius is very small compared to even a small "tactical" nuke.
Thermobaric munitions (or fuel-air explosives) also have some pretty terrifying effects for "non-WMD".

 

Some clairifications that my friend pointed out:
FYI

The bald dude who is narrating is very far off the mark on many comments...but that's show biz I suppose. He obviously knows little pertaining to BOP lethality computions or fragment distrubution.

Other errors in the clip: The MOAB is not the largest conventional bomb ever made. That title belongs to the post WWII era T-12 which was 44,000 pounds and could only be carried by the B-36 bomber. The BLU-82/B is referred to incorrectly as the BLU-88 in the clip. I was Special Operations Functional Manager for the BLU-82/B when on active duty.

MOAB was also one of the programs I worked while on active duty. In the clip, one of the interviewees is Dr. Mark Hunter, whom I now work for.

The name MOAB was a "joke name" we gave the project when we had very little funding and did not expect it to be developed. The events of 911 changed all that, but the project became a program of record before we could change the name. My late Friend Al Weimorts was the inventor of the MOAB and was the one who named it Mother Of All Bombs. The official title is GBU-43/B.

You should have seen the head scratching trying to think up a legitimate name to fit the acronynm. When we had a reasonably fitting title for MOAB, it was made public and the people in MOAB Utah were very upset and threatened legal action against us.

An interesting tidbit is the bomb was painted in John Deere colors since it was filled out west in a farming area and there was not enough OD paint on hand to do the trick. A trip to the local JD dealer fixed that problem.

Here's a picture of bomb number three ( the one shown in the film) the day before the drop. I'm the one in the uniform on the left and Al Weimorts is directly to my left. He was one hell of an Engineer: he died last year of brain cancer.

Bill W

 

Very cool JCalhoun. Nice to have an inside look at some thing like that.
I own a small John Deere tractor and think the thing about painting it JD green is hilarious

 

It's rather cool ain't it.

 

ok so maybe it's not a wmd. it's comes pretty close though. they could have used that money and put in the health care system or education

 

Or bought flowers
No offense but are you sure you have found the right forum? I haven't seen any pacifists around here lately.

 

no i'm just nervous being next door to a country with that many bombs

 

How many bombs are in the rest of the world? :-?

 

Have you ever not been next door to a country with lots of bombs? If so I would like to know where you were.
You needn't fear bombs from the US as long as you are not an enemy of the US.

 

Can i ask u something simple greig? How can USA got enemy all ower the world,eawen on completly oposite side of globe?

 

Of course you can ask. But unless I understand your question I cannot answer you fully. Why do you think that the US has enemies all over the world? Perhaps you can be more specific?
ps...In this day and age with instant communication and weapons that can traverse the globe what difference does it make what side of the globe a country is on?

 

While I'm no pacifist I think he does have a point. Does the US have any need whatsoever for a bomb this size? Regardless of the uselessness of large weapons in today's small-scale counter-insurgency wars, doesn't the US already have plenty of lighter weapons capable of doing the same job as this bomb?

Meanwhile, health care and the education system are always good goals to spend money on.

 

Nobody believed the US needed tanks before 1941.

 

I'm not saying they shouldn't have bombs, I'm saying they won't need more of the same.

 

If you believe bombs are a necessary evil (as I do) what is there about this particular bomb that disturbs you? As opposed to the hundreds of thousands of other bombs in the world?
If lighter bombs were capable of doing the same thing then nobody would likely waste the effort and money to develop this one. I'm not an expert on MOABs but it seems that if Osama or some other terrorist is hiding in a cave in the mountains perhaps this bomb might be just the thing needed.

But as I understand it it isn't more of the same. The MOAB is designed to do things that conventional bombs cannot do ar at least not as well or as efficiently.

 

Bombs of this size have been found useful in the past, who is to say what the future holds

One can drive a nail into wood using a rock, yet the hammer was still invented