ORLANDO, Fla. – The U.S. military on Thursday dropped an enormous bomb in Afghanistan known as the “mother of all bombs.”
A GBU-43/B Massive Ordnance Air Blast Bomb, or MOAB, was dropped at 7 p.m. local time Thursday, according to U.S. officials.
An MC-130 aircraft operated by Air Force Special Operations Command dropped the bomb.
Here’s a look at what the non-nuclear weapon can actually do and where it’s been tested in Florida.
This is the first time a MOAB has been used in the battlefield, according to the U.S officials. This munition was developed during the Iraq War.
The munition explosion zone has about a 1-mile radius.
A 30-foot-long MOAB was first tested off the Florida Gulf Coast in 2003.
A 21,700-pound MOAB was dropped from a plane at 20,000 feet, on Nov. 21, 2003 at Eglin Air Force Base, U.S. Air Force file photos show.
The MOAB was designed to replace the BLU-82 "Daisy Cutter,” which was used in Vietnam and in Afghanistan.
The MOAB is not the most powerful non-nuclear weapon. Russia developed another bomb in 2007 that was called the “father of all bombs,” according to Business Insider.
The MOAB has the equivalent explosion of 11 tons of TNT, the FOAB has 44 tons.
Watch the U.S. Air Force test MOAB in the video below.