Russia Tests Powerful 'Dad of All Bombs'

[Scurrilous]

Source: Associated Press

<snip>

"The Russian military has successfully tested what it described as the world's most powerful non-nuclear air-delivered bomb, Russia's state television reported Tuesday.

It was the latest show of Russia's military muscle amid chilly relations with the United States.

Channel One television said the new weapon, nicknamed the "dad of all bombs" is four times more powerful than the U.S. "mother of all bombs."

"The tests have shown that the new air-delivered ordnance is comparable to a nuclear weapon in its efficiency and capability," said Col.-Gen. Alexander Rukshin, a deputy chief of the Russian military's General Staff, said in televised remarks."


Read more: http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5jixX4YqeeXCrWvmEEv9JMABhXmVw

[AndyA]

1. We all know that Bush won't be able to resist a "mine's bigger than yours is" contest.

Little Boots can't have that. This is just the type of thing that will get to him.

[whistle]

3. Bush will fund research now to ignite the world's oceans

[AndyA]

7. He's heard that there's oil under them thar waters.

And oil burns, right?

If you look closely, you'll see smoke coming out of his ears from overworking his tiny little brain.

[TechBear_Seattle]

43. Funny you should say that....

Radio Frequencies Help Burn Salt Water
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=228x33844

[formercia]

11. The Russian transport aircraft has more lift capability.

What is Junior going to deliver it with?

[Up2Late]

39. The MOAB was dropped from only a C-130, we have much bigger heavy-lifters to use.

Use the C-17 or the C-5 and this could continue to escalate into totally insanity.

[whistle]

2. Flour dust Bomb....as a kid I learned about these from Mr Wizard Show

[JVS]

17. check this out

http://www.instructables.com/forum/T89N9RFF3KLNV8N/

[beberocks]

4. Putin's answer to *'s push for war with Iran? n/t

[Purveyor]

14. I think all the 'hints' are there if one has been following the Russia press these last

few months.

I'm putting a lot of hope in Russia's ability to put these judeo-christian armageddonites back into their proper box.

[TheLastMohican]

29. More likely

Putin's answer to the crazy idea of playing "star wars" games at Russia's front door. The future ABM silos and radar in Poland and Czech Republic could be easily taken out with this monster without resorting to nuclear exchange.

[truthisfreedom]

5. Naturally we'll respond with the "God of all bombs."

[Deja Q]

6. 'We hate you America, but we love taking your jobs!!!'

No good deed goes unpunished.
:crazy:

[Hardrada]

15. We weren't expecting to get that samovar factory anyway.

[Spazito]

8. Oh crap, if the bush cabal stay true to form.....

Romania is in BIG trouble!

[seriousstan]

9. I'll call BULLSHIT. They claim to have HE that are 4 times as powerful as ours?

Russian bomb contains 7.8 tons of high explosives compared to more than 8 tons of explosives in the U.S. bomb, it's four times more powerful because it uses a new, highly efficient type of explosives that the report didn't identify.

[formercia]

12. The Russians are very good at conventional ordnance.

Don't diss them so quickly.

The problem with big conventional bombs is getting the maximum blast without putting a lot of weight into the delivery container in order to properly confine the explosives.

[TheBaldyMan]

13. there is a possibility that the Russkies use smarts

it's quite common outside the U.S. to use brain power when you don't have the obscene levels of military spending that Americans have.

[pretty_lies]

16. Actually, This Is Possible!

The bomb is thermobaric, ie, it's a fuel-air explosive.

There is a LOT more energy locked up in 10 tons of jet fuel than in 10 tons of high explosive.

TNT contains 3.8 kilocalories per gram, but jet fuel has 10 kilocalories per gram when it burns in air.

The reason we use high explosives like TNT (or later innovations like RDX) in most bombs is because that energy is available all at once.

The fuel-air explosive (FAE) disperses jet fuel in a fine mist so it reacts with air and can release the energy in one shot, too.

But FAE is a LOT harder to get right. The more you know!

[seriousstan]

21. Both the US and Russian bombs air FAE.

[pretty_lies]

22. WRONG!

The heaviest US bomb, the 21,000lb MOAB is based on H6, an explosive that is a mixture of RDX (Cyclotrimethylene trinitramine), TNT, and aluminum - ie, conventional high explosive.

The heaviest US FAE ordnance is the BLU-96 at 2000lb. The Russian bomb is a lot heavier.

[Tesha]

35. Because of that need for air, FAEs tend not to be "concentrated"

Because of that need for air, FAEs tend not to be "concentrated",
leading to FAE and HE bombs beinggood at different things. If
you want to take down a single modest-sized building, an HE
bomb will pack the concentrated punch to do it cleanly.

If you want to blow down a largish part of a city, though,
the higher power levels of the FAE bombs can do it,
especially as you have no need to contain the blast to
a smallish area.

If you want to blow down the entire city, you resort to
explosives+incendiaries or good old nukes.

Tesha

[slackmaster]

10. Bah, the Russkies took some pictures of something from Burning Man and called it their own

:nuke:

[dickbearton]

18. Slackmaster, you sound like someone stuck in the 1950s...

Maybe we should call you the backward man.

[slackmaster]

19. I'd settle for Slack Warrior

[JVS]

24. oh shit, it's Bob!

[slackmaster]

38. Not Bob, "Bob"

Slack off!

[BrightKnight]

20. Apparently Putie Poot is feeling inadequate.

Perhaps he is upset after the plan to capture Santa's workshop failed.

[David__77]

23. The US will not maintain hegemony internationally.

That's what's really at work right now - the unraveling of the post-1989 US-led unipolar world order. If anything good comes out of the Bush era, it's the rise of a multi-polar world order in which no one country universally dominates, and countries like Venezuela and others are defending the rights of developing countries.

[MisterP]

25. as opposed to the U.S.'s Mother of All Bombs? What is this, Gravity's Rainbow? n/t

[SayWhatYo]

26. I guess my question would be...

how much do they cost and how many can they build?

[BrightKnight]

27. .

[SayWhatYo]

44. I agree....

[bhikkhu]

28. I would guess - not much, and boatloads

massive thermobaric weapons are more of a delivery issue than a technology or cost issue. An old friend with army training one took some non-dairy creamer packets and demonstrated a small (but impressive) technically thermobaric explosion. Size involves delivery issues. We still have to roll the MOAB out the back of a big slow transport plane, while a much more powerful package of nukes can ride on the tip of an ICBM, halfway across the planet.

[Tesha]

36. If I had to characterize Russian weapons technology, I'd characterize it as "highly reproducible"

> I guess my question would be how much do they cost and how many can they build?

If I had to characterize Russian weapons technology, I'd
characterize it as "highly reproducible". They tend to
aim at lower tech than we do, but choose technologies,
materials, and processes that allow the weapons to be
cranked out at reasonable cost in very large numbers.

The AK-47 is probably the best example of that. A
weapon that didn't require extremely close machining
tolerances, it could easily be mass-produced and works
reliably in the field (whereas our M-16 was touchy).
That's why it's the assault rifle of choice among
terrorists/insurgents/freedom-fighters worldwide.

Their tanks seem to exemplify the same goals: they crank
out by the thousands whereas our Abrams Main Battle Tank
is expensive to build, expensive to mainain, and quite
subject to breakdowns in the field.

Tesha

[benEzra]

45. Yes.

Russian aircraft and spacecraft are also examples.

The Russians also tend to take more of an evolutionary approach to designing things, rather than starting from a clean sheet of paper. IIRC, the current booster for the Soyuz spacecraft is essentially an evolved version of the one that Yuri Gagarin rode into orbit in 1961. If it works, improve it, instead of throwing it out and starting over.

Taking the AK-47 as another example, it incorporates proven design features from American, German, and prior Russian designs dating back decades; the sights, gas block/gas tube, and the cartridge itself are straight from the SKS; the trigger assembly is from the U.S. M1 Garand; the general layout and reduced-power cartridge stems from German influence; etc.). When they finally replaced the AK-47 in the 1970's, they did so with an evolved AK-47 (the AK-74). The Russian full-power rifle/machinegun cartridge (7.62x54R) has been in service since 1891.

Russian engineers are also very, very good at designing explosives. AFAIK, they also have the smallest fuel-air weapon in use (a fuel-air RPG warhead, I think), and I don't think we have anything comparable.

[Up2Late]

30. Russia unveils the 'father of all bombs'

Source: The Guardian

Russia unveils the 'father of all bombs'

Luke Harding in Moscow
Wednesday September 12, 2007
The Guardian

Russia's military yesterday announced that it had successfully tested a lethal new air-delivered bomb, which it described as the world's most powerful non-nuclear weapon.

In what appears to be the Kremlin's latest display of military might, officials said Moscow had developed a new thermobaric bomb to add to its already potent nuclear arsenal.

Russia's state-run Channel One television said the new ordnance - dubbed the Father of all Bombs - is four times more powerful than the US's Mother of all Bombs.

"The results of tests of the aviation explosive device that has been created have shown that it is comparable with nuclear weapons in its efficiency and potential," Alexander Rukshin, a deputy chief of the Russian armed forces staff, told the channel....

Read more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/russia/article/0,,2167175,00.html?gusrc=rss&feed=12

---

Just what the World needs right about now, a new Mega-Bomb race. Hey George! Mission Accomplished.

[Sen. Walter Sobchak]

31. the danger of a bomb like this is it could be mistaken for a nuclear strike,

and the fog of war being what it is it could set off a real nuclear exchange,

[MessiahRp]

32. Mission Accomplished... Bush, Cheney & The Neocons got what they wanted...

A new Cold War Arms Race.

Assholes.

Rp

[StClone]

33. Czar Bomba was the Mother then

Russia's paranoia includes always want to scare themselves into believing that biggest is better if you are second rate at everything else...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:TB0063.jpg


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tsar_Bomba

[TheLastMohican]

34. Actually you put right here the worst American fear

Everybody is afraid to be called a "loser", right?

What's wrong with Russia testing new weapons? I don't get it.

US introduces dozens of innovations into its armed forces every year and nobody is calling that paranoia. Oh, right, we have an "Empire" to maintain. :sarcasm:

[benEzra]

46. Tsar Bomba = "King of Bombs." (n/t)

[Javaman]

37. I prefer "the grand poobah of booms", personally. nt

[Up2Late]

40. Here are two pictures I took of the "MOAB" they had on display in 2004 down in Florida...

...at the Air Force Armament Museum.



NOTE: These are children next to it.



These are average size adults, *cough* sorry, American Adults next to it.:banghead: :puke:

[DS1]

41. *pfft* That's nothing, we've got Britney Spears

[brentspeak]

42. Who cares if Moscow is overflowing with homeless children?

Russia's got more important things to take care of -- like make the "Father of all bombs."