"mother of all bombs" dropped on Taliban tunnel complex -Afghanistan

[anatta]

The U.S. military dropped the largest non-nuclear bomb in eastern Afghanistan on Thursday just days after a Green Beret was killed fighting ISIS there, a U.S. defense official confirmed to Fox News.

The GBU-43B, a 21,000-pound conventional bomb, was dropped on an ISIS tunnel complex in Nangarhar Province.

The MAOB -- Massive Ordinance Air Blast -- is also known as the “Mother Of All bombs.” It was first tested in 2003, but hadn't been used before Thursday.

"As [ISIS'] losses have mounted, they are using IEDs, bunkers and tunnels to thicken their defense," Gen. John Nicholson, Commander of U.S. Forces in Afghanistan, said in a statement. "This is the right munition to reduce these obstacles and maintain the momentum of our offensive against [ISIS]."

For comparison, each Tomahawk cruise missile launched at Syria last week was 1,000-pounds each.
http://www.foxnews.com/world/2017/0...-in-afghanistan-after-green-beret-killed.html

 

[anatta]

the GBU-43/B Massive Ordnance Air Blast (MOAB), aka Mother of All Bombs, most powerful non-nuclear bomb made so far deliver a hell of a punch & blast radius of up to one mile(on each side) ..

 

[cancel2 2022]

What happened to the Daisy Cutter?

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/BLU-82

Sent from my iPhone 10S

 

[Airstrip One]

Was this level of ordinance necessary?

 

[Sailor]

Was this level of ordinance necessary?

General John Nicholson from the article thinks it was the right munition.

 

[anatta]

it explodes on contact when the tip hits the earth
it replaced the daisy cutter - it's perfect weapon for the rocky mountains of Afghan tunnels busting

 

[Darth Omar]

Was this level of ordinance necessary?

It's consistent with destroying ISIS.

 

[Micawber]

The U.S. military dropped the largest non-nuclear bomb in eastern Afghanistan on Thursday just days after a Green Beret was killed fighting ISIS there, a U.S. defense official confirmed to Fox News.

The GBU-43B, a 21,000-pound conventional bomb, was dropped on an ISIS tunnel complex in Nangarhar Province.

The MAOB -- Massive Ordinance Air Blast -- is also known as the “Mother Of All bombs.” It was first tested in 2003, but hadn't been used before Thursday.

"As [ISIS'] losses have mounted, they are using IEDs, bunkers and tunnels to thicken their defense," Gen. John Nicholson, Commander of U.S. Forces in Afghanistan, said in a statement. "This is the right munition to reduce these obstacles and maintain the momentum of our offensive against [ISIS]."

For comparison, each Tomahawk cruise missile launched at Syria last week was 1,000-pounds each.
http://www.foxnews.com/world/2017/0...-in-afghanistan-after-green-beret-killed.html

Let me hazard a guess. You are for this because Trump did it and not Obama.

 

[Darth Omar]

Let me hazard a guess. You are for this because Trump did it and not Obama.

You'll never hear me whine about *anyone* killing scores of ISIS barbarians. I was ok with Obama droning them.

 

[anatta]

Let me hazard a guess. You are for this because Trump did it and not Obama.

I think this went after ISIS, not the Taliban. regardless it's designed to "bunker bust".

ISIS has been circulating back to Afghan ( AQ Core) due to Coalition success in Iraq/Syria
-and while the Taliban are still the big enemy in Afgh there is no reason to stop counter-terrorism strikes against ISIS..

I'm all for counter-terrorism ops anywhere ( so long as they aren't signature strikes)..

I do not think it's possible to stand up a western style government in Afghanistan - but as long as we are there
killing ISIS and the Taliban are fine by me

 

[Cancel 2018.2]

Let me hazard a guess. You are for this because Trump did it and not Obama.

Let me guess you're against it because it was Trump not Obama.

 

[NOVA]

it explodes on contact when the tip hits the earth
it replaced the daisy cutter - it's perfect weapon for the rocky mountains of Afghan tunnels busting

I hope the tunnels were full of the terrorist enemy and they are completely caved in and destroyed....

 

[USFREEDOM911]

Was this level of ordinance necessary?

The reason it was used, is because it's very effective in areas of caves and/or tunnels.
If someone doesn't die from the explosion or the resulting fireball, they die from suffocation when all the oxygen is sucked out of the area and that includes the caves and/or tunnels, due to the "vacuum" created by the bomb.

 

[tsuke]

Was this level of ordinance necessary?

its a message. Kill a marine you get this.

A roman can say he is a roman citizen anywhere in the world and be guaranteed protection because the might of rome is behind him.

 

[Stretch]

A bit of lagniappe here is maybe the capture again of roly-poly Kim's attention. It's a gopher's paradise over there with tunnels full of "stuff"...some say a lot of them head south. Hmmmmmmmm.

 

[USFREEDOM911]

A bit of lagniappe here is maybe the capture again of roly-poly Kim's attention. It's a gopher's paradise over there with tunnels full of "stuff"...some say a lot of them head south. Hmmmmmmmm.

Can you imagine if they would have had these, during the Vietnam war.
It would have made it unnecessary to have the tunnel rats and would have lessened the American losses taking a hill, giving it back, and then being ordered to retake it.
Just drop a bomb on a known opening and watch the rest of the openings pop open.

 

[cancel2 2022]

Nostradumbarse is pretty cack handed at most things.

Sent from my iPhone 10S

Can you imagine if they would have had these, during the Vietnam war.
It would have made it unnecessary to have the tunnel rats and would have lessened the American losses taking a hill, giving it back, and then being ordered to retake it.
Just drop a bomb on a known opening and watch the rest of the openings pop open.

They had the Daisy Cutter in the Vietnam War.

Sent from my iPhone 10S

 

[Darth Omar]

A bit of lagniappe here is maybe the capture again of roly-poly Kim's attention. It's a gopher's paradise over there with tunnels full of "stuff"...some say a lot of them head south. Hmmmmmmmm.

I don't think there's much question the Bomb was intended to do more than disrupt ISIS.

In fact, the Tomahawks that hit Assad's and Vladie's assets were intended to do more than destroy a portion their air capability in Syria. NK is reportedly going to test fire a nuke this weekend. I think both events were at least partly intended for their consumption. Today's bomb was a tunnel buster: the little NK dictator keeps a lot of his stuff underneath the ground.

And right now Trump is in his head since Trump is acting unpredictably but decisively. Does the little twerp pull the trigger on Saturday or not?

IF Trump were to take out NK's nuke capability, it will be the biggest geopolitical development since the fall of the Berlin Wall. And I wouldn't put it past him to try.

 

[Buckly J. Ewer]

Can you imagine if they would have had these, during the Vietnam war.
It would have made it unnecessary to have the tunnel rats and would have lessened the American losses taking a hill, giving it back, and then being ordered to retake it.
Just drop a bomb on a known opening and watch the rest of the openings pop open.

We lost that war.

 

[Granule]

We lost that war.

Something today's liberals are still trumpeting from the roof tops.

Fucking nanny statist defeatocrats.