B-29 bombers flying a daylight mission to Japan. As such, it would take two fully loaded B-29 Superfortresses equipped with 80 AN-M64 bombs to match the firepower of one MOAB.
When loaded with 267 lbs of TNT, the 40 AN-M64’s made for a total TNT weight of 10,680 lbs. When armed with 40 AN-M64 500 lb bombs, the B-29 had a devastating 20,000 lb payload. The B-29 boasted perhaps the largest standard bomber payload of the war. How Many B-29s Would It Take to Match a MOAB? By the end of the war the Allies would drop 41 of these bombs dropped on targets in Germany, mainly bridges and viaducts.Ĭompared with the MOAB, the Grand Slam of course still falls short, with a yield of less than 60% of the MOAB’s. Delivered by modified Lancaster bombers, the Grand Slam, along with the smaller Tall Boy of similar design, was a deep penetration bomb intended for use against hardened structures such as railway bridges and submarine pens. The 22,000 lb bomb carried 9,000 lbs of explosives with a 13,000 lb yield. The Grand Slam bombs were the largest conventional bombs of the war.
The MOAB blast radius is 1 mile and yield is equivalent to 11 tons, or 22,000 lbs, of TNT.įor a sense of scale, let’s compare the MOAB to the most destructive single weapon systems of the Second World War. But just how powerful is the GBU-43/B? The bomb weighs 22,600 lbs, filled with 18,700 lbs of explosives. On April 13, 2017, the USAF broke this trend by dropping one of these massive weapons on top of ISIS positions in Afghanistan. For years, America’s MOABs have lain dormant: the high potential for collateral had kept the weapon out of action, with smaller and more precise JDAMs and Hellfire missiles preferred against insurgent forces that intermeshed with civilian populations. It’s called the GBU-43/B Massive Ordnance Air Blast, nicknamed the Mother of All Bombs, and it is the largest non-nuclear bomb currently in the U.S.
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