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http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story2&u=/nm/20030311/ts_nm/iraq_usa_bomb_dc Top Stories - Reuters U.S. Tests 'Mother of All Bombs' in Florida Tues, Mar 11, 2003 EGLIN AIR FORCE BASE, Fla. (Reuters) - The U.S. Air Force said it dropped a 21,000-pound MOAB bomb on a range in northwest Florida on Tuesday in a successful first live test of a powerful new weapon nicknamed the "mother of all bombs." Defense officials suggested the test was a message to Iraq ahead of a possible war about the might of the U.S. military. "Obviously, anything we have in the arsenal, anything that's in almost any stage of development, could be used" against Iraq, said Gen. Richard Myers, chairman of the U.S. military's Joint Chiefs of Staff. A C-131 Samaritan aircraft dropped the bomb on a test range at Eglin Air Force Base a minute or two after 2 p.m. EST, a base spokeswoman, Senior Airman Nicholasa Brown, said. The explosion sounded "just like thunder," Brown said from an office on the east side of the 724-square-mile base, adding that "We barely even heard it." The test took place on a range of the west side of the base. The bomb packs 40 percent more power than America's current most powerful non-nuclear bomb, the 15,000-pound Daisy Cutter, which was used to pound the caves of Tora Bora in Afghanistan in late 2001, Eglin officials said. Base officials warned residents in neighboring communities to expect a loud noise when the bomb was dropped. But police in Pensacola, about 30 miles away, said they heard nothing when the bomb was dropped and were unaware the test was completed. "We felt nothing," Pensacola Police spokeswoman Cindy West said. It was the first live test of the weapon, another base spokesman, Senior Airman Ryan Hansen, said. "We've done some that were inert. This is the first one with munitions," Hansen said. The MOAB is guided by global positioning satellites, an Eglin spokeswoman said. It spreads a flammable mist over the target then ignites it, producing a highly destructive blast. The acronym stands for "Massive Ordnance Air Burst" but military officials have nicknamed it the "Mother Of All Bombs." The power of the 10.5-ton MOAB bomb falls far short of that generated by nuclear weapons, however. The nuclear bomb the United States dropped on Hiroshima, Japan, in 1945, generated 15 kilotons of energy. _____________________ http://news.yahoo.com ===== LMNOP http://lmno4p.org "No War for Oil!" __________________________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Web Hosting - establish your business online http://webhosting.yahoo.com --------------------------- ANTI-NATO INFORMATION LIST ==^================================================================ This email was sent to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?a84x2u.bdn7KI.YXJjaGl2 Or send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] TOPICA - Start your own email discussion group. FREE! http://www.topica.com/partner/tag02/create/index2.html ==^================================================================
