Apr 14, 2017

The MOAB is puny compared to a nuke

United States Department of Defense

The issue:

The U.S. dropped a GBU-43/B for the first time Thursday in Nangarhar Province, Afghanistan.

The facts:

Commonly referred to as the Mother of All Bombs (MOAB), it weighs 21,000 pounds and has an explosive yield equal to 11 tons of TNT.

Why this matters:

Much was said about the MOAB being the most powerful non-nuclear bomb ever used in combat, but that comparison can overstate its size — it's just 0.073% as powerful as the nuclear bomb dropped on Hiroshima and modern nuclear weapons are many times stronger than that.

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