US Tests Biggest Non-nuclear Bomb Designed to Instill Fear

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Wednesday, March 12, 2003

US Tests Biggest Non-nuclear Bomb Designed to Instill Fear

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The US Air Force successfully tested a powerful new 21,000-pound (9,450-kg) bomb on Tuesday, the biggest conventional bomb in the US military's arsenal that could be used against critical targets in a possible war with Iraq.

A C-130 transport plane dropped the bomb on a test range at Eglin Air Force Base in northwestern Florida just after 2 p.m. EST(1900 GMT), officials said.

It was the final test of the new Massive Ordnance Air Blast, or MOAB, and the first to use actual explosives. Two previously undisclosed tests, one in February and one on Friday, were inert.

Residents in neighboring communities were warned in advance to expect a loud noise when the bomb was dropped. Some residents said after the detonation that they saw a tall cloud of debris billowing into the sky, but that the explosion was not as big as they had expected.

Nicknamed "the mother of all bombs," the MOAB has been under development since late last year. The bomb carries 40 percent more power than America's current most powerful non-nuclear bomb, the 15,000-pound (6,750-kg) "Daisy Cutter," which was used in the Vietnam War and also used in US military action in Afghanistan in late 2001.

The MOAB can be used against large formations of troops and equipment or hardened above-ground bunkers. The target set has been expanded to include deeply buried targets.

As the United States is preparing for a potential war with Iraq, defense officials suggested the test was a message to Baghdad.

At a Pentagon news briefing, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld refused to say whether the behemoth bomb would be used in a war against Iraq, but he said it would rattle nerves in Iraq.

"There is a psychological component to all aspects of warfare," he said.

"The goal is to not have a war ... The goal is to have the pressure be so great that Saddam Hussein cooperates," Rumsfeld said.

"Short of that ... the goal is to have the capabilities of the coalition so clear and so obvious that there is an enormous disincentive for the Iraqi military to fight against the coalition and there's an enormous incentive for Saddam Hussein to leave and spare the world a conflict," he said.

The US Air Force is considering releasing video of the final test, in hopes of placing additional pressure on the Iraqi military, reports said.

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