The super Daisy Cutter
The super "Daisy Cutter"
March 12, 2003
Successful test of the most powerful American bomb ever made
WASHINGTON, March 11 (AFP) - The U.S. Air Force successfully tested Tuesday the most powerful bomb it has ever had, a 9.5-ton satellite-guided device, announced a spokeswoman from Eglin Air Force Base in Florida (southeastern United States).
"It exploded" just after 1 p.m. (18:00 GMT), said Nicholasa Brown, commenting on the test of the MOAB (Massive Ordnance Air Blast - massive air blast munition), nicknamed "the mother of all bombs" because of its initials in English, which would have a destructive power equivalent to a small nuclear device.
"It's not nothing," emphasized Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld at a press conference.
The MOAB surpasses the power of the BLU-82, nicknamed "daisy cutter" (literally "daisy cutter"), which was previously considered the largest conventional bomb in the world and the most destructive in the U.S. conventional arsenal. It has a GPS guidance system and, due to its size, can only be dropped from a C-130 cargo plane. "Its use can be very devastating against ground forces, it's a psychological weapon," said Jake Swenson, a spokesperson for the base. The U.S. Chief of Staff, General Richard Myers, refused on Tuesday to indicate whether MOABs would be sent to the theater of possible operations in Iraq. "Of course, everything we have in our arsenal, everything that is being developed could be used" in case of war, however added General Myers during a press conference, during which Mr. Rumsfeld noted that the United States was trying every means to pressure Iraq.
"The goal is that the coalition's capabilities are so visible and obvious that the Iraqi army is strongly discouraged from fighting against the coalition, and that Saddam Hussein is strongly encouraged to leave and spare the world a conflict," said Mr. Rumsfeld.
The "daisy cutter" was used in Vietnam to create clearings for helicopter landings, during the 1991 Gulf War to destroy minefields, and in Afghanistan to destroy caves during the fight against the Taliban. The development of the MOAB began last year at the Eglin Research Laboratory.
03/11/03 21:34
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