United States use GBU-43 the most poweful non-nuclear MOAB bomb against target in Afghanistan 11504171

Defense & Security News - United States
 
United States use GBU-43 the most poweful non-nuclear MOAB bomb against target in Afghanistan.
The U.S. dropped a GBU-43 Massive Ordnance Air Blast (MOAB) bomb, commonly referred to as the Mother of All Bombs, on an ISIS tunnel complex in Afghanistan's Achin district, Nangarhar province, April 13. This marks the first time the weapon-at 11 tons the largest non-nuclear bomb in the U.S arsenal-has been used in combat.
     
The U.S. dropped a GBU-43 Massive Ordnance Air Blast (MOAB) bomb, commonly referred to as the Mother of All Bombs, on an ISIS tunnel complex in Afghanistan's Achin district, Nangarhar province, April 13. This marks the first time the weapon-at 11 tons the largest non-nuclear bomb in the U.S arsenal-has been used in combat.
The GBU-43 non-nuclear bomb was used in Afghanistan to destroy cave and tunnel complex and personnel.

     
A statement from the U.S. Forces-Afghanistan Public Affairs Office said the attack was part of ongoing efforts to defeat ISIS-K in Afghanistan in 2017, using the term for the Islamic State's Afghanistan branch. This bomb was used to destroy cave and tunnel complex and personnel.

The strike used a GBU-43 bomb dropped from a U.S. aircraft, reportedly an Air Force MC-130 transport. After the launch, the bomb go the the ground at supersonic speed before slamming its way toward a hardened target through layered subterranean defenses such as native rock, reinforced concrete, and steel plates. The 11-tonnes of TNT warhead then bursts about 1.8 m above the ground.

Only some 15 GBU-43B bombs are believed to be in the Pentagon's stockpile of air-dropped ordnance. By comparison the U.S. has dropped thousands of precision bombs, such as the GBU-10 series of Paveway laser-guided bombs and the GBU-20 series of Joint Direct Attack Munition (JDAM) bombs, in Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria in recent years. These bombs weigh between 226 to 1,814 kg. .

The GBU-43N nicknamed the "Mother Of All Bombs" is the most powerful non-nuclear weapon in the U.S. Air Force. The GBU-43/B Massive Ordnance Air Blast Bomb (MOAB) weapon is a 9,525 kg total weight GPS-guided munition with fins and inertial gyro for pitch and roll control.

According to Pentagon reports, Operation Inherent Resolve, the allied coalition fight against ISIS, saw 30,743 weapons released in 2016, an increase from the 28,696 weapons released the previous year. "Weapons released" can be anything from a Small Diameter Bomb weighing 285 pounds, a Hellfire air-to-ground missile, or GBU series ordnance.