shiny and pretty, isn't it? U.S. Tests Massive Bomb in Florida By ROBERT BURNS The Associated Press Tuesday, March 11, 2003; 3:48 PM The Air Force tested for the first time the biggest conventional bomb in the U.S. arsenal Tuesday, a 21,000-pound munition that could play a dramatic role in an attack on Iraq. Cheryl Irwin, a Pentagon spokeswoman, said the test at Eglin Air Force Base, Fla., was considered a success. "It did what they expected it to do. Nothing malfunctioned," she said. The bomb, officially called the Massive Ordnance Air Blast, or MOAB, and unofficially dubbed the Mother of All Bombs, is guided to its target by satellite signals. It was dropped out the rear of a C-130 transport plane, officials said. The bomb is so powerful that its detonation was expected to create a mushroom cloud visible for miles. Some area residents felt the bomb's detonation but said the explosion was not as big as they had expected. "It was kind of weak," said Patricia Sariego, a receptionist at the Best Western hotel in Navarre, on the southern edge of Eglin. She said the blast shook doors. Asked about the test at a Pentagon news conference, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld would not say whether it would be used in an Iraq war, and he refused to discuss its capabilities. "This is not small," he said. Separately, the Pentagon's No. 2 official said in a speech to the Veterans of Foreign Wars that if President Bush decides to invade Iraq, it will be a "war of liberation" as well as an effort to rid Iraq of weapons banned by the United Nations. "Those very weapons are the source of our concern," said Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz. "The issue is not about Iraqi oil. If the United States had wanted access to Iraqi oil, we could have dropped our whole policy 12 years ago, lifted the sanctions and let Saddam Hussein have his weapons of mass destruction." "No, if there's going to be a war, it will be a war to disarm Saddam's weapons of mass terror," he said. "But it will also be, like wars that you fought in, a war of liberation, a war to secure peace and freedom." The U.S. military is putting the final pieces of combat power in place in anticipation of an order by Bush to attack Iraq and depose Saddam, Iraq's president. More than 200,000 U.S. forces are within striking range. The Air Force bomb is much bigger than any other conventional bomb. The next-biggest is the 15,000-pound BLU-82, dubbed the Daisy Cutter, created during the Vietnam War to clear landing areas in the jungle. Jake Swinson, spokesman for the Air Armament Center at Eglin Air Force Base, Fla., said there was no onsite news coverage of the MOAB test for safety reasons, but an Air Force chase plane took video that would be made available later to news organizations. Other officials said the Air Force expected to have the bomb available for use in an Iraq war. "If the war fighter wanted to use it, I'm sure we could make some available," Swinson said, adding that he had no information whether or when the weapon might be used in combat.
I'm assuming they blew it up over the ocean... poor fish... you know, those fish have weapons of mass destruction too...
Nope, in a heavily wooded area 50 miles from Pensacola. Doubting it's too heavily wooded right about now, though....poor Coons....
As Rummy said: "it isn't small" ( worrying about his peepee?), but how smart will it be when dropped on Baghdad?
Just had to underline this quotation if we're going to talk about the phallic implications of the, um, weapon.
I question the wisdom of developing a bomb to use against critical targets when the delivery method is a c-141 cargo plane. Critical military targets would most likely have enough residual air defenses to pose a serious threat to a c-141.
From what I've read of the locals thoughts on the explosion, I think our military needs a dose of viagara. Kidding of course, but these people are saying things like it didn't sound any different than other ordinance tested in the area, not to mention there wasn't even a spike in the seismic meters in the area. I expect more of my tax dollars people. Damn, maybe if it wasn't for the tax cuts, we could have made a bomb that could have scared everybody in Florida. Oh well, the Iraqi army was quitting when they heard the Brits popping fire crackers, so maybe we don't really need a huge ass bomb.
