April 13, 2017, 3:29 pm
Surprise!
The whole world is seeing a new kind of America. Some folks will be happy. Some, and certainly those on the receiving end of 21,000 pounds of bomb, will not.
M.O.A.B.’s or Massive Ordinance Air Blast aka Mother of All Bombs is the biggest non-nuclear bomb in the United States arsenal. It was dropped in the Nangarhar Province in Afghanistan. This is close to where one of our Special Forces was killed.
The MOAB is specifically designed for use in missions such as Thursday’s. It explodes in the air, which creates air pressure that can make tunnels and other structures collapse. It can be used at the start of an offensive to soften up the enemy, weakening both its infrastructure and morale.
The strike came just days after a Green Beret was killed fighting ISIS in Nangarhar, however, a U.S. defense official told Fox News the bombing had nothing to do with that casualty.
US and Afghan forces have been attempting to clear the Islamic State’s so-called Khorasan province from Achin and several other districts in eastern Afghanistan for nearly two years, but like the Taliban in other areas of Afghanistan, the group remains entrenched. The deployment of the MOAB may indicate a degree of desperation in the fight against the Islamic State in Achin district. The MOAB reportedly cost $314 million to develop and has a unit cost of $16 million.
Photo credit: Greg Goebel, Elgin AFB
