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Russia Tests Powerful 'Dad of All Bombs' | ||
2007-09-11 | ||
The Russian military has successfully tested what it described as the world's most powerful non-nuclear air-delivered bomb, Russia's state television reported Tuesday. It was the latest show of Russia's military muscle amid chilly relations with the United States. Channel One television said the new weapon, nicknamed the "dad of all bombs" is four times more powerful than the U.S. "mother of all bombs." "The tests have shown that the new air-delivered ordnance is comparable to a nuclear weapon in its efficiency and capability," said Col.-Gen. Alexander Rukshin, a deputy chief of the Russian military's General Staff, said in televised remarks. Unlike a nuclear weapon, the bomb doesn't hurt the environment, he added.
The U.S. Massive Ordnance Air Blast, nicknamed the Mother Of All Bombs, is a large-yield satellite-guided, air-delivered bomb described as the most powerful non-nuclear weapon in history. Channel One said that while the Russian bomb contains 7.8 tons of high explosives compared to more than 8 tons of explosives in the U.S. bomb, it's four times more powerful because it uses a new, highly efficient type of explosives that the report didn't identify.
Like its U.S. predecessor, first tested in 2003, the Russian bomb is a "thermobaric" weapon that explodes in an intense fireball combined with a devastating blast. It explodes in a terrifying nuclear bomb-like mushroom cloud and wreaks destruction through a massive shock wave created by the air burst and high temperature. Thermobaric weapons work on the same principle that causes blasts in grain elevators and other dusty places — clouds of fine particles are highly explosive. Such explosions produce shock waves that can be directed and amplified in enclosed spaces such as buildings, caves or tunnels. Channel One said that the temperature in the epicenter of the Russian bomb's explosion is twice as high as that of the U.S. bomb. The report showed the bomb dropped by parachute from a Tu-160 strategic bomber and exploding in a massive fireball. It featured the debris of apartment buildings and armored vehicles at a test range, as well as the scorched ground from a massive blast. It didn't give the bomb's military name or say when it was tested. Rukshin said the new bomb would allow the military to "protect the nation's security and confront international terrorism in any situation and any region." "We have got a relatively cheap ordnance with a high strike power," Yuri Balyko, head of the Defense Ministry's institute in charge of weapons design, told Channel One. | ||
Posted by:john frum |
#20 KOMMERSANT > THE [Russ] GOVERNMENT WILL DEFEAT DEATH. Russ demographics - its shrinking, aging, dying, etc. population. Govt expects to lose up to 27.0Milyuhn by 2050. |
Posted by: JosephMendiola 2007-09-11 23:28 |
#19 Well for starters I gotta wonder if AP is getting their bylines from pravda these days. First the MOAB isn't a thermobaric or a fuel air explosive. By the book its more like a general purpose bomb. This is what it contains: "The 21,700-pound [9,500 kilogram] bomb contains 18,700 pounds of H6, an explosive that is a mixture of RDX (Cyclotrimethylene trinitramine), TNT, and aluminum. H6 is used by the military for general purpose bombs" http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/systems/munitions/moab.htm A fuel air explosive or a thermobaric is gonna do crap all against a hardened target. Great against structures tho. |
Posted by: Valentine 2007-09-11 22:59 |
#18 And if the 100 Megaton Bomb lands on the stockpile.... |
Posted by: Eric Jablow 2007-09-11 22:43 |
#17 Don't forget about the 1000 Mt H-bomb doomsday ship that Khrushchev wanted. It was to be unmanned and explode when a radiation threshold was exceeded. It would have irradiated the northen hemisphere and likely boiled off a chunk of atmosphere into space. Scared the pants off the other Soviets. |
Posted by: ed 2007-09-11 21:34 |
#16 If both sides can deliver hundreds of multi-kiloton warheads, and both sides are even remotely rational, MAD still applies and neither side will use them. The modifier 'rational' is why we are, and should be, so concerned about Iran and Pakistan. And why Tancredo was not wrong to remind them that one of their 'pillars' could/would be permanently eliminated. |
Posted by: Glenmore 2007-09-11 21:28 |
#15 Don't fergit Russ reportedly reactivating their "Doomsday Machine" vv Cobalt Bombs??? |
Posted by: JosephMendiola 2007-09-11 21:05 |
#14 Unlike a nuclear weapon, the bomb doesn't hurt the environment, he added. I wonder how many carbon credits they gotta buy before they can use it? |
Posted by: tu3031 2007-09-11 20:53 |
#13 But they also built the Tsar-Bomba.. the "King of Bombs" ... 50 Megatons |
Posted by: john frum 2007-09-11 20:22 |
#12 They need to remember that it is only the Dad of All CONVENTIONAL Bombs - unless it measures in the megatons it doesn't count in the US vs. Russia scenario. If they want to use it on Chechnya, that's a different argument. |
Posted by: Glenmore 2007-09-11 19:50 |
#11 Patton was right. We're gonna have to fight those sons of bitches someday. Not necessarily. Russia has less than half the population of the United States and theirs is dropping by about 1,800 people per day while the U.S. is expanding by about 8,000 (excluding immigration). The Russian economy is 1/7th of the U.S. economy and is still very natural resource based. The Soviet Union went bankrupt trying to maintain an empire and compete militarily with the U.S. If Putin wants to walk down the same path he too will bankrupt his country. Personally, I enjoy watching him squeeze the EU on energy. I hope it lasts. |
Posted by: DoDo 2007-09-11 19:50 |
#10 the Russian bomb contains 7.8 tons of high explosives compared to more than 8 tons of explosives in the U.S. bomb ... While the U.S. bomb is equivalent to 11 tons of TNT, the Russian one is equivalent to 44 tons of regular explosives. So at 5.6 times the yield/kg of TNT this means the Russian "explosive" is really a fuel-air explosive (hydrocarbon + oxygen energy = 5 x TNT). Not much of a boom but a huge fireball. |
Posted by: ed 2007-09-11 19:22 |
#9 Patton was right. We're gonna have to fight those sons of bitches someday. |
Posted by: mcsegeek1 2007-09-11 18:58 |
#8 Beta test at Grozny. |
Posted by: Nimble Spemble 2007-09-11 18:30 |
#7 Unlike a nuclear weapon, the bomb doesn't hurt the environment, he added. Frigging loadsa laughs, lol! What is this shit? |
Posted by: rhodesiafever 2007-09-11 18:19 |
#6 "Unlike a nuclear weapon, the bomb doesn't hurt the environment, he added." That has *got* to go down as one of the quotes of the year! |
Posted by: Anonymoose 2007-09-11 18:19 |
#5 Tupolev Tu-160 Maximum speed: Mach 2.05 (2,220 km/h, 1,380 mph) at high altitude Combat radius: =10,500km Maximum range: 17,400 km Service ceiling: 15,000 m (49,200 ft) Rate of climb: 70 m/s (13,780 ft/min) Empty weight: 110 t (242,000 lb) Loaded weight: 267 t (590,000 lb) Max takeoff weight: 275 t (606,000 lb) 2 internal bays for 40,000 kg (88,200 lb) of ordnance, options include: 2 internal rotary launchers each holding 6× Raduga Kh-55 cruise missiles (primary armament) or 12× Raduga Kh-15 short-range nuclear missiles |
Posted by: john frum 2007-09-11 18:18 |
#4 Of course the problem is getting it over the target without the delivery aircraft getting blown out of the sky. Unlike a nuclear weapon, the bomb doesn't hurt the environment, he added. Well, except for all the nature and wildlife within a 1000 yard radius.... |
Posted by: DarthVader 2007-09-11 17:57 |
#3 Russian mathematicians, physicist and engineers [reverse and otherwise] are remarkable. |
Posted by: Red Dawg 2007-09-11 17:54 |
#2 |
Posted by: john frum 2007-09-11 17:44 |
#1 |
Posted by: john frum 2007-09-11 17:43 |