GBU- 43/B MOAB 18700lbs.

Code: MM10109

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At the time of development, it was touted as the most powerful non-nuclear weapon ever designed. The bomb was designed to be delivered by a C-130 Hercules, primarily the MC-130E Combat Talon I or MC-130H Combat Talon II variants. Since then, Russia has tested its "father of all bombs" which is claimed to be four times more powerful than the MOAB.

The MOAB is an Air Force Research Laboratory technology project that began in fiscal year 2002, as a descendant of the BLU-82 "Daisy cutter". It underwent a successful field test at Eglin Air Force Base, Florida on March 11, 2003 and another on November 11, 2003.

The designation "GBU" stands for Guided Bomb Unit. (Other types of bombs are designated as "BLU", for Bomb Live Unit, "BDU" for Bomb Dummy Unit, etc.) The "Guided" part of the designation indicates that it has a guidance capability to achieve significant accuracy at the desired point of impact.

The MOAB is 30 feet,360  inches (9.17 m) long, has a diameter of 40.5 inches (102.9 cm) and weighs 22,600 lb (10.3 tons) (of which 18,700 lb (8.5 tons) are high explosives.) Its blast radius is 450 feet (137.16 m, 150 yd), though the massive shockwave created by the air burst is said to be able to destroy an area as large as nine city blocks. Due to its large size and weight, it was designed to be dropped via parachute extraction out of the back of a C-130 cargo aircraft.

The MOAB is a precision guided munition which uses global positioning technology to impact at the target location. Detonation of the warhead is triggered by fuzes on 4 foot long extenders on the nose of the weapon. It is the first U.S. weapon to use Russian-style lattice control surfaces (referred to as "Belotserkovskiy grid fins"), like those used on the R-400 Oka and Vympel R-77.