He didn't even get into the scariest part of the MOAB, which is not only the largest conventional bomb, but the largest thermobaric bomb. The Mother of All Bombs is actually just the nickname, with the actual name being the Massive Ordinance Air Blast. This is because the MOAB, as a thermobaric weapon, works by detonating a first time, in order to spread a large amount of highly volatile super-heated propellant across a large area, which then mixes with the oxygen in the air and detonates a spilt second later. The little ball of fire you see on the video isn't the bomb--it's just the propellant igniting, and the real explosion is the MASSIVE shockwave that is emitted from that area (ie. the actual blast radius is FAR larger than it appears on the video--it will instantly kill anybody within a 1.6km radius). Essentially, the ignition of the gasses within the burning area creates rapid expansion, which creates a super-heated wall of air that will shatter basically anything in its path. Ironically, the MOAB isn't the weapon to worry about in war. Probably the scariest weapon is the Neutron Bomb. It's a nuke that actually has a lower blast yield than a MOAB, but it has extra deuterium-tritium that creates a cascading neutron reaction. It won't destroy as much land as a MOAB, but it releases a wave of gamma radiation that will kill all living things within a significant radius. Also, because all the radiation is released rapidly, there is no fallout in the long term. It could literally be dropped in a city to kill the entire population with a blast of radiation, but leave most of the buildings intact and non-radioactive within 6 months. Another scary thing about them is that they are small, and thus could be miniaturized to fit into a car, or perhaps even a suitcase. Fortunately, only the USA, Israel and China have made these, so the risk of them proliferating is pretty low.
Yeah, but I don’t know about trusting China with having power weapons like the Neutron Bomb. They’re drooling over Taiwan like a bulldog over steak as the world is watching Russia and Ukraine. Plus, the Chinese economy is sinking pretty hard right now.
at 2:15- That is Harry Truman, President of the US - he replaced Franklin Roosevelt (FDR) when FDR died suddenly in 1945 - 3:45 yes, Gorbachev and Reagan; 8:40 - no, those are "flares" - small heat sources fired by the aircraft as decoys to defeat heat seeking missiles fired by the enemy - The MOAB has the equivalence of about 11 Tons of TNT - - - "Little Boy" - the bomb dropped on Hiroshima had the equivalent power of 15 KILOTONS of TNT (15,000 tons).
5:45 That funny-looking helicopter is the Sikorsky CH-54 Tarhe, frequently called the "Skycrane". They were used for recovering downed aircraft and transporting 155 mm howitzers, bulldozers and other bulky equipment and supplies. They also dropped 10-ton bombs to collapse tunnels and create landing zones (the Daisy Cutters that he mentioned). Their maximum payload is 20,000 pounds (9,071 kg). Out of 105 built, there are still 11 in flyable condition. The civilian variant, the S-64, is still in production, although not many have been built (31 since 1962, and 4 of those have crashed).
My brother who was in school about 40 miles away from Eglin AFB when they dropped the bomb he says they never heard anything until out of nowhere the door that the teacher had propped open to let some air in she used a cut log to hold it suddenly got knocked throw by the shockwave and then the door slammed shut almost instantly. He was only in elementary school so obviously nobody really knew wth just happened but yet i now work in the airport right next to Eglin so i get to see jets take off all day afterburner and all! F-35's, F-22's, F-16's, F-15's, T-38's, C-130's, C-17's, KC-135's ah i love it i love aviation so much.
That Helicopter is the Sikorski "Sky Crane" it could carry interchangeable cargo/ passenger compartments as well as carry light vehicles and artillery pieces. - some are still flying today as fire fighting aircraft
The radio controlled bombers were used to go after the V-1 and V-2 bunkers in N France, for the same purpose. Navy Lt Joe Kennedy Jr was killed on such a mission, the older brother of Jack Kennedy.
That helicopter is a Sikorsky,they are a crane style Hemiptera still used heavily today.Some versions have water tanks on them and used for Forrest fire fighting,those were flares that are used as a defense against heat seeking missiles.
just looked up some info on the grand slam, it was able to get that depth due to a thick casing combined with hitting the ground at near supersonic speed. and the helicopter you saw is used for heavy lifting and see frequent use fighting forest fires at 8:32 those are flares
It's also worth noting that the Grand Slam and its smaller cousin were developed to penetrate and destroy things like submarine pens, tunnels, etc. One unusual target was the German battleship Tirpitz, which was struck by a handful of these bombs, which penetrated all the way to the keel before detonating, sinking the Tirpitz in a Norwegian fjord for the remainder of the war.
I play Simon's videos for the sake of my housemate as much as mine: I believe in education, and his pieces are well-researched and have a high-quality production value.
Some other information that I'm surprised Simon left out. BLU-82 is actually Bomb, LIQUID Unit, not Bomb, Live Unit. Called the "Poor Man's Nuke", the BLU-82 is a fuel blivet full of gasoline/petrol and consists of two charges. The bursting charge which atomizes the fuel, and a detonation charge which causrs an ignition in the vaporized fuel, resulting in a massive explosion. In 1990, just prior to the beginning of the 1991 Gulf War, Gen Norman Schwarzkopf, Supreme Commander of Coalition Forces, had this weapon demonstrated to him. He turned to the Air Force sergeant acting as technical expert and asked, "How effective is this thing?" Without batting an eye, the USAF NCO answered, "General, I don't know about effective, that's up to you to determine. But, I can tell you, every living being out to four nautical miles, is bleeding from every orifice of its body". And MOAB is bigger?
I live 20 minutes from where they created the MOAB. It’s actually the first thing you see when you enter our town. Our welcome sign, consists of the MOAB, surrounded by a few smaller bombs and each military branches flag, with the American flag in the center, behind the MOAB. The year they dropped it on Afghanistan, 2017, we paraded it through our streets during our Veteran’s Day parade.
Im glad you finally got to a Megaprojects video. Theres so much more info in his vids compared to the others youve reviewed. He just did one on the A-10 Thunderbolt "Warthog" you would really like.
I was stationed at Eglin during the 2 test missions of the MOAB. If I remember they were conducted on Range 70. One day you may like a look into Eglin's Climatic Hanger...
That picture of the C130 with all the "fireworks" coming out of it is not a weapon. It is a self-defense flare system used to "spoof" missiles that track the heat (IR signature) of the aircraft's engines. The original flare dispenser unit for the C130 was installed by Lockheed Aircraft Services Company of Ontario, California and was built for an undisclosed country in the late 1980's. The photo of all those flares coming out at once was actually an accident when testing the system. There was a C130 in front of the aircraft with the flare system flying with its rear ramp down and photographer was filming the flare ejections. During the test, the flare operator accidently hit the "Eject All" button and the rest is history. The picture of all those flares going off was so spectacular, that this photo and others with similar ejection of all the flares has become "standard fare" in marketing and promo films, etc. Almost every country that have combat C130 aircraft today carry a variant of this system. In normal operation, ejecting all the flares at once would be wasteful and leave the aircraft without any additional protection from further IR missile engagements.
A couple of points: 1. "MOAB" is actually an inside joke that few people get, anymore. It's a play on Saddam Hussein's threatening the "Mother Of All Battles" in 1990-91. 2. The helicopter in question is a CH-54 'Tarhe'. It was a cargo helicopter developed at the very beginning of the 1960's. Then, it was generally used for carrying cargo via sling, or for dropping off transport pods...in addition to dropping the occasional Daisy Cutter. 3. Also, bombs like the 'Grand Slam' were able to penetrate so deeply because they had specially-hardened cases and noses, and because of very careful fuzing, to delay detonation long enough for it to plow through whatever was in its way. Although not covered here, the US in the 1990-91 Gulf War improvised some deep penetrators (the GBU-28 -- designed, manufactured, and deployed in less than three weeks) by packing shot-out 8inch/203mm cannon barrels with high explosives, fixing a dense steel cap onto the nose, and slapping on a laser guidance package (that idea would later lead to the JDAM). That all allowed it to dig about 50meters into the ground, before letting off a c.650lbs fart. 4. Finally, I notice that the people complaining about bunker busters being used, are not volunteering to go spelunking into unmapped cave systems crammed with $uicidal crazy people. JS.
helicopter is called a flying crane. It is designed to haul loads strapped into the area between the legs. There is also a transit container like those on trains and trucks to give it a general standardized cargo mover.
The whole "Mother of all" naming was often a taunt aimed at the late Sadam Hussein who threatened the US with "The Mother of all Wars" - and the MOAB was developed just in time to "benefit" from that "humor".
"That Guy" is the President of the United States, Harry Truman. He was the Vice President under Roosevelt when he died. He was the President until 1951 when Eisenhower was elected. Truman was President when I was born until I started school in 1951.
That type of helicopter is still used today Kabir. It is called Sikorsky S-64 Sky crane. It is used in heavy lifting of very large items in construction. Most all Tall TV and Radio Antenna towers use the helicopter to lift and take down massive things off the tower, and on other projects around the world. And you asked, what are all that burning lights you saw coming out of that big aircraft. No they were not bombs, They were Countermeasures a combination of very hot burning phosphor and chaff a type of metal to confuse heat seeking missals, and the mettle chaff will confuse Radar. ECM, Chaff & Flares
Yeah, I live in Oklahoma, just about 150 miles from McAlester, where the MOABS are made. Sometimes the proximity to the McAlester Ammo Plant and the idea all that could go wrong there crosses my mind, especially when visiting Krebs for Italian food, which is nearby. McAlester has some fascinating museums, including an old prison, but the combo of the BOMBS FROM HELL Factory and the maximum security prison there don't make me want to tour them so much.
We see those types of helicopters all the time Kabir. They used those back in 2017 to repair the failing Oroville Dam when it was threatening collapse and they use this chopper in fighting forest fires.
The picture you had up, of the C-130 Hercules looking somewhat like the angel of wrath. Was firing off flares and chaff. It's a decoy strategy for heat seeking and radar guided missiles. The flares full the heat seekers and shaft is basically slivers of aluminum foil that confused radar guided missiles.
There is a scary bunker busting cousin to the MOAB, the GBU-57 A/B Massive Ordnance Penetrator or (MOP). It is a 30,000 pound capable of penetrating 200 feet or 61m before detonating. Most of these bunker busting bombs rely on accelerating to terminal velocity before impact, mass, and the shape and hardened construction to go down that far. They then use a delay fuse so that it explodes after penetrating in. The bomb is gps guided, and unlike the MOAB, is deliverable by a B-2 bomber. The B-2 is barely capable of carrying 2 of them. (They are a tight fit into the bomb bay.) There is test footage of these monsters being dropped.
The Guy to the left of Stalin was actually the US President who gave the final order to employ nuclear weapons. Harry S. Truman. He was FDR's last vice president, and thus assumed office when FDR died in April 1945 - less than a month before Germany's surrender in May. Thus, the responsibility fell to Truman - who only learned about the project to build the bomb after he became President. He was Elected to serve a second term. Harry S. Truman signed the executive order that ended segregation in the US military. He also relieved General MacArthur for insubordination during the Korean war.
Fun fact: "Mother Of All Bombs" is not an official name for the bomb in any way, shape, or form. The name "Mother Of All Bombs" was applied by media outlets due to said acronym and in reference to Saddam Hussein's(whose army it was expected to most likely be used against when it debuted) promise of bringing the US-led Coalition "The mother of all wars" in the lead up to the Gulf War. These same media outlets got upset over it being called the "Mother Of All Bombs" after it was actually used. Well, folks, if you don't like a bomb being called that, maybe you shouldn't have given it that name to begin with.
Pictured with Stalling is Harry S. Truman. He was President of the USA. This picture was from when he told Stallin about the Herosheema and the Nagasaki bombs and Stallin was unmoved because he already knew..
The guy beside Stalin was Harry Truman the successor to FDR as President of the USA. The detonation you were asking whether or not was real was accidentally the largest hydrogen bomb ever tested by the US. It was the Castle Bravo test. I recommended it before but the documentary Trinity and Beyond shows the progression of US nuclear development through the Cold War and shows actual military footage of the tests. The same director has made the documentaries Nuclear 911, about nuclear accidents and lots nuclear weapons, Atomic Filmmakers, about the Hollywood studio made to film and document the tests, Atomic Journeys, which shows several of the test sites and what was tested at those sites, and finally Nukes in Space, a film about nuclear tests in the upper atmosphere and space. All are good and interesting if you've ever wanted to know more about that part of the Cold War.
When I was in the Air Force 2001-2005 the dollar value of a US soldier was commonly cited as a major factor in deciding (justifying) when to use air force munitions (and in general explosives in general). The cost to replace a soldier was somewhere between 1.1 million-1.4 million in 2001-2005 dollars (this included the $600k life insurance policy). Given that the JDAM cost around $250k it was basically always worth it just in terms of dollars to use any form of air power or artillery to kill an enemy. The limiting factor was usually availability or munitions and risk of civilian casualties/collateral damage. $450k to kill ~36 enemies is worth it just in dollars, not to mention other factors like maintaining the force, morale, much less the intrinsic value of a human life.
The other guy next to Stalin is/was Harry Truman. He took over as President after Franklin Roosevelt died in office a few months before the end of WW2. Some in the US wouldn't recognize him either. The atomic bomb project was so secret that Truman only found out about it after being sworn in a President. 4:25 Hardened steel casing (especially thickened tip) will burrow very deeply into the ground. I think they flew in lower formations so it wouldn't go even deeper. Probably part of it also is the planes just couldn't get that high with such a heavy load. But it turned out 10 to 15 thousand feet was about right anyway. It is estimated the bomb was still accelerating even as it hit the ground. And it was already super sonic at that point. 5:39 A Sikorsky (the designation escapes me now) heavy lift helicopter. Still used in forestry to fight forest fires & sometimes haul logs out of remote areas. 8:43 All of those are flares. Meant to steer infrared missiles (heat seekers) away from the plane.
the moab bomb was a bunker buster it and bombs like it dont need drills to go underground. the massive weight gets them underground where they are designed to explode to get underground bunkers or when maybe a cave is being used. the moab has only been used once and it was dropped on a underground bunker during the afganastan conflict
On the subject of bombs, does The U.K. still find unexploded bombs from WW2. As a U.S. serviceman stationed in Germany during the 80's and a good part of the 90's it wasn't uncommon to find them during construction projects. the majority were ours but we found a lot of yours too.
Watch the movie outbreak and see the power of the daisy cutter. My friends who went to Vietnam said that when they left their choppers after the daisy cutter was used for their "instant " helo landing pad they found Vietnamese soldiers a quarter of a mile away lying on the ground with blood coming out of their ears and elsewhere 🤔
The man next to Stalin was President Harry Truman. When Franklin Roosevelt died near the end of WW2, Harry moved from Vice President to President and he was the person who had to make the decision to drop the bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
That helicopter was the Sikorsky CH-54 Tarhe, also known as the Sky Crane. There was a pod that could be attached under it to carry troops or a field hospital. It was the army's heavy lifter. Those weren't bombs coming from the C-130 but flares. They are used to help protect the aircraft from heat seeking missiles, while chaff is used to help avoid radar guided missiles.
Kabir, the first gentleman pictured with Stalin is President Franklin Roosevelt. I believe this was taken at the Yalta meeting. The second man pictured with Stalin is President Truman but I don't know when or where this picture was taken.
The reaction to the US military's MOAB: The Mother of All Bombs. It was really interesting to watch the reaction and listen to the history of those big bombs.
The bombs are able to go deep before exploding because of a very simple device you probably have in your kitchen. A timer. There have been "delayed fuse" bombs since at least the American War of 1812. Our National Anthem has a line "The bombs bursting in air". A fuse cut to length gave the time before exploding. Took a few shots to get the fuse right.
Always enjoyed Simon !!! Make them big and not nuclear , then no radiation blowing in the wind. Looks like Christmas Time was not good for parts of Europe with the F4 Tornado and Earthquake. I have been seeing snow since Xmas Eve , even though it isn't much , I'm stuck in my driveway with only 8 inches & 20F everything has turned to ice and I'm on the backside of a dead end hill and the neighbor couldn't get out with his Suburu Outback.
Standing to the left of Stalin is US President Harry S. Truman the man ended up president when Franklin Roosevelt died near to the end of WW2. He (Truman) is the man who was President when the two atom bombs were dropped on Japan on his orders.
2:15 that's Harry Truman. He succeeded FDR when he died in 1945. He is an interesting figure. A teetotaling Yankee preacher type guy, today you might call him a dork, he cried when he learned he was going to be sworn in as president. He had only been Vice President for 82 days. He stepped up though, interesting guy.
When people talk about the cost of using a weapon... one has to consider the alternative costs- On the extreme end, what would it cost to have inserted enough soldiers to have killed those people in hand to hand combat? Include all the recruiting and training to that point, and the cost to extract them afterwards, don't forget the (lifetime) medical costs of any casualties, and the costs of recruiting and training their replacements.
Kabir, you should react to the song Angel Flight (Radio Tower Remix w/Lyrics (by songwriter/singer Radney Foster). The best video starts out with "In Memory of American Fallen" with a picture of a helmet placed on a upside down rifle. It is a sadly beautiful song about American military returning home for the last time and really shows the "angel wings" flares to the best effect.
MC 130 with all of the pyrotechnics coming out of it at 8:40 is not firing ordnance. Those are flares used to distract enemy heat seaking missiles. The hope is that the missile will chase a flare and not your warm engine.
Hiroshima (Hi-RŌ-shima not He-rō-SHĒĒ-ma) was decimated as was Nagasaki. My Japanese language professor was from Hiroshima (that’s how I learned the correct pronunciation 😎) and her mom was a survivor of the bombing. Tomoda-sensai was the only child as her mother was diagnosed, shortly after, with cancer from radiation poisoning. There is a true video about two salesmen who lived in Nagasaki but were called to the home office in Hiroshima. They survived that bombing but lost sight of each other trying to find transportation back to Nagasaki. The main character made it back to Nagasaki just in time to go through that bombing. He survived both and went on to lecture at schools about what he went through. Survivors of the bombings (hibakusha) were shunned by society in Japan. Their opportunities for employment were slim to none, so they had to turn to the government for help. In the video you learn more about that because that was the reason he waited so very long to tell his story. He did not want to bring shame on his family. Tsutomu Yamaguchi is his name. “Over the last few years Yamaguchi shared his personal accounts publicly. He spoke at the United Nations, wrote books and appeared in the documentary "Twice Bombed, Twice Survived: The Doubly Atomic Bombed of Hiroshima and Nagasaki" by filmmaker Hideo Nakamura.”
Lots of people bring up the economics of war and the human cost as if they aren't intertwined. By using better and more equipment, the total economic cost increases significantly, but it also lowers the cost in lives, both civilian and soldier. It's a calculation that America prefers heavily over the meat-grinders that were the World Wars, Korean War, and Vietnam
Definitely keep looking into Simon’s channels. Megaprojects and geographics especially are great. I recommend the f117 Nighthawk and the A-12 Archangel
Cross reference the cost of the bomb, with the number of enemy killed cross referenced with the potential friendly soldiers lives you saved, instead of having to fight them humanly
I told you the Moab was no joke. Now what you need to look at is Project Thor. AKA rods from God. That's what frightens me the most. Once it's deployed not even a nuclear device can stop it and when it hits it explodes and the kinetic Shockwave does as much damage as a small nuclear device 5-9 mile kill rate depending on the terrain. Remember what I said about us and killing. We're so good at it it even frightens us.
@Kabir Considers What you see in the photo of the MC130 are flares, they are counter measures for heat missiles. Now the cost analysis, the same target ground troops, training, food, transportation, equipment and lives vs. one bomb, one aircraft and a seven man flight crew. Question is it's use cost affective or worth it?
The A-130 plane and its combat variant, the AC-130 "angle of death", have a unique flare system as seen in 8:43 that looks like an angle with wings, thus the nickname. Its just a bunch of flares that get ejected from ports on the airframe so any heat-seeking weapons will get confused and go for the flares instead of the planes hot engines.
He didn't even get into the scariest part of the MOAB, which is not only the largest conventional bomb, but the largest thermobaric bomb. The Mother of All Bombs is actually just the nickname, with the actual name being the Massive Ordinance Air Blast. This is because the MOAB, as a thermobaric weapon, works by detonating a first time, in order to spread a large amount of highly volatile super-heated propellant across a large area, which then mixes with the oxygen in the air and detonates a spilt second later. The little ball of fire you see on the video isn't the bomb--it's just the propellant igniting, and the real explosion is the MASSIVE shockwave that is emitted from that area (ie. the actual blast radius is FAR larger than it appears on the video--it will instantly kill anybody within a 1.6km radius). Essentially, the ignition of the gasses within the burning area creates rapid expansion, which creates a super-heated wall of air that will shatter basically anything in its path.
Ironically, the MOAB isn't the weapon to worry about in war. Probably the scariest weapon is the Neutron Bomb. It's a nuke that actually has a lower blast yield than a MOAB, but it has extra deuterium-tritium that creates a cascading neutron reaction. It won't destroy as much land as a MOAB, but it releases a wave of gamma radiation that will kill all living things within a significant radius. Also, because all the radiation is released rapidly, there is no fallout in the long term. It could literally be dropped in a city to kill the entire population with a blast of radiation, but leave most of the buildings intact and non-radioactive within 6 months. Another scary thing about them is that they are small, and thus could be miniaturized to fit into a car, or perhaps even a suitcase. Fortunately, only the USA, Israel and China have made these, so the risk of them proliferating is pretty low.
Yeah, but I don’t know about trusting China with having power weapons like the Neutron Bomb. They’re drooling over Taiwan like a bulldog over steak as the world is watching Russia and Ukraine. Plus, the Chinese economy is sinking pretty hard right now.
8:37 They’re evasive flares used to protect the plane from heat-seeking missiles
at 2:15- That is Harry Truman, President of the US - he replaced Franklin Roosevelt (FDR) when FDR died suddenly in 1945 - 3:45 yes, Gorbachev and Reagan; 8:40 - no, those are "flares" - small heat sources fired by the aircraft as decoys to defeat heat seeking missiles fired by the enemy - The MOAB has the equivalence of about 11 Tons of TNT - - - "Little Boy" - the bomb dropped on Hiroshima had the equivalent power of 15 KILOTONS of TNT (15,000 tons).
5:45 That funny-looking helicopter is the Sikorsky CH-54 Tarhe, frequently called the "Skycrane". They were used for recovering downed aircraft and transporting 155 mm howitzers, bulldozers and other bulky equipment and supplies. They also dropped 10-ton bombs to collapse tunnels and create landing zones (the Daisy Cutters that he mentioned). Their maximum payload is 20,000 pounds (9,071 kg). Out of 105 built, there are still 11 in flyable condition. The civilian variant, the S-64, is still in production, although not many have been built (31 since 1962, and 4 of those have crashed).
My brother who was in school about 40 miles away from Eglin AFB when they dropped the bomb he says they never heard anything until out of nowhere the door that the teacher had propped open to let some air in she used a cut log to hold it suddenly got knocked throw by the shockwave and then the door slammed shut almost instantly. He was only in elementary school so obviously nobody really knew wth just happened but yet i now work in the airport right next to Eglin so i get to see jets take off all day afterburner and all! F-35's, F-22's, F-16's, F-15's, T-38's, C-130's, C-17's, KC-135's ah i love it i love aviation so much.
That Helicopter is the Sikorski "Sky Crane" it could carry interchangeable cargo/ passenger compartments as well as carry light vehicles and artillery pieces. -
some are still flying today as fire fighting aircraft
That's President Truman with Stalin.
When you drop 10, 000 KG from say 5000 meters for example - its terminal velocity is very high - think of it as a slow, but gigantic bullet
Love your videos bro. You're really eloquent and I love watching your commentary on various topics.
Thanks so much :)
The radio controlled bombers were used to go after the V-1 and V-2 bunkers in N France, for the same purpose. Navy Lt Joe Kennedy Jr was killed on such a mission, the older brother of Jack Kennedy.
That helicopter is a Sikorsky,they are a crane style Hemiptera still used heavily today.Some versions have water tanks on them and used for Forrest fire fighting,those were flares that are used as a defense against heat seeking missiles.
One of my first cousins was flying one of these "crane choppers" in Vietnam and they got shot down. Took 30 yrs to declare them KIA
just looked up some info on the grand slam, it was able to get that depth due to a thick casing combined with hitting the ground at near supersonic speed.
and the helicopter you saw is used for heavy lifting and see frequent use fighting forest fires
at 8:32 those are flares
It's also worth noting that the Grand Slam and its smaller cousin were developed to penetrate and destroy things like submarine pens, tunnels, etc. One unusual target was the German battleship Tirpitz, which was struck by a handful of these bombs, which penetrated all the way to the keel before detonating, sinking the Tirpitz in a Norwegian fjord for the remainder of the war.
I play Simon's videos for the sake of my housemate as much as mine: I believe in education, and his pieces are well-researched and have a high-quality production value.
I remember being asleep when they tested it. It shook the whole house and scared the crap out of me. Haha
We build the moab here in my home town in Oklahoma and the bring one out for parades sometimes.. Crazy
McAlester is wonderfully insane! Best haunted house I've ever been to was just outside of McAlester.
Some other information that I'm surprised Simon left out.
BLU-82 is actually Bomb, LIQUID Unit, not Bomb, Live Unit.
Called the "Poor Man's Nuke", the BLU-82 is a fuel blivet full of gasoline/petrol and consists of two charges. The bursting charge which atomizes the fuel, and a detonation charge which causrs an ignition in the vaporized fuel, resulting in a massive explosion.
In 1990, just prior to the beginning of the 1991 Gulf War, Gen Norman Schwarzkopf, Supreme Commander of Coalition Forces, had this weapon demonstrated to him.
He turned to the Air Force sergeant acting as technical expert and asked, "How effective is this thing?"
Without batting an eye, the USAF NCO answered, "General, I don't know about effective, that's up to you to determine.
But, I can tell you, every living being out to four nautical miles, is bleeding from every orifice of its body".
And MOAB is bigger?
One of these bombs could pay for the yearly salary of 251 teachers. We have at least 20.
I live 20 minutes from where they created the MOAB. It’s actually the first thing you see when you enter our town. Our welcome sign, consists of the MOAB, surrounded by a few smaller bombs and each military branches flag, with the American flag in the center, behind the MOAB. The year they dropped it on Afghanistan, 2017, we paraded it through our streets during our Veteran’s Day parade.
8:40 Those are flares. They are countermeasures for heat-seeking missiles.
You ask good questions. Very informed.
It stands for (Massive Ordnance Air Blast.) Not mother of all bombs. MOAB It blows up before it hits the ground to make the effect even greater.
The Helicopter at 5:30 is designed specifically for heavy lifting not combat
Im glad you finally got to a Megaprojects video. Theres so much more info in his vids compared to the others youve reviewed. He just did one on the A-10 Thunderbolt "Warthog" you would really like.
I was stationed at Eglin during the 2 test missions of the MOAB. If I remember they were conducted on Range 70. One day you may like a look into Eglin's Climatic Hanger...
Lol, 2 of my fav Brits in same video. Much love from Utah!
That picture of the C130 with all the "fireworks" coming out of it is not a weapon. It is a self-defense flare system used to "spoof" missiles that track the heat (IR signature) of the aircraft's engines. The original flare dispenser unit for the C130 was installed by Lockheed Aircraft Services Company of Ontario, California and was built for an undisclosed country in the late 1980's. The photo of all those flares coming out at once was actually an accident when testing the system. There was a C130 in front of the aircraft with the flare system flying with its rear ramp down and photographer was filming the flare ejections. During the test, the flare operator accidently hit the "Eject All" button and the rest is history. The picture of all those flares going off was so spectacular, that this photo and others with similar ejection of all the flares has become "standard fare" in marketing and promo films, etc. Almost every country that have combat C130 aircraft today carry a variant of this system. In normal operation, ejecting all the flares at once would be wasteful and leave the aircraft without any additional protection from further IR missile engagements.
A couple of points:
1. "MOAB" is actually an inside joke that few people get, anymore. It's a play on Saddam Hussein's threatening the "Mother Of All Battles" in 1990-91.
2. The helicopter in question is a CH-54 'Tarhe'. It was a cargo helicopter developed at the very beginning of the 1960's. Then, it was generally used for carrying cargo via sling, or for dropping off transport pods...in addition to dropping the occasional Daisy Cutter.
3. Also, bombs like the 'Grand Slam' were able to penetrate so deeply because they had specially-hardened cases and noses, and because of very careful fuzing, to delay detonation long enough for it to plow through whatever was in its way. Although not covered here, the US in the 1990-91 Gulf War improvised some deep penetrators (the GBU-28 -- designed, manufactured, and deployed in less than three weeks) by packing shot-out 8inch/203mm cannon barrels with high explosives, fixing a dense steel cap onto the nose, and slapping on a laser guidance package (that idea would later lead to the JDAM). That all allowed it to dig about 50meters into the ground, before letting off a c.650lbs fart.
4. Finally, I notice that the people complaining about bunker busters being used, are not volunteering to go spelunking into unmapped cave systems crammed with $uicidal crazy people. JS.
Ur thinking WMO weapons of mass destruction . In the Iraq war where we killed sadism husain
helicopter is called a flying crane. It is designed to haul loads strapped into the area between the legs. There is also a transit container like those on trains and trucks to give it a general standardized cargo mover.
Those are flares for defense from air to air missiles.
The whole "Mother of all" naming was often a taunt aimed at the late Sadam Hussein who threatened the US with "The Mother of all Wars" -
and the MOAB was developed just in time to "benefit" from that "humor".
"That Guy" is the President of the United States, Harry Truman. He was the Vice President under Roosevelt when he died. He was the President until 1951 when Eisenhower was elected. Truman was President when I was born until I started school in 1951.
That type of helicopter is still used today Kabir. It is called Sikorsky S-64 Sky crane. It is used in heavy lifting of very large items in construction. Most all Tall TV and Radio Antenna towers use the helicopter to lift and take down massive things off the tower, and on other projects around the world. And you asked, what are all that burning lights you saw coming out of that big aircraft. No they were not bombs, They were Countermeasures a combination of very hot burning phosphor and chaff a type of metal to confuse heat seeking missals, and the mettle chaff will confuse Radar. ECM, Chaff & Flares
Yeah, I live in Oklahoma, just about 150 miles from McAlester, where the MOABS are made. Sometimes the proximity to the McAlester Ammo Plant and the idea all that could go wrong there crosses my mind, especially when visiting Krebs for Italian food, which is nearby. McAlester has some fascinating museums, including an old prison, but the combo of the BOMBS FROM HELL Factory and the maximum security prison there don't make me want to tour them so much.
We see those types of helicopters all the time Kabir. They used those back in 2017 to repair the failing Oroville Dam when it was threatening collapse and they use this chopper in fighting forest fires.
The Russian version, called the Father of all Bombs, is half the size and 4X the yield.
2:15 the guy to Stalin's left is US president Harry Truman. FDR was US president for most of WWII, but died short of the war's end.
The picture you had up, of the C-130 Hercules looking somewhat like the angel of wrath. Was firing off flares and chaff. It's a decoy strategy for heat seeking and radar guided missiles. The flares full the heat seekers and shaft is basically slivers of aluminum foil that confused radar guided missiles.
That guy is Truman, the President of the US I believe after Roosevelt.
There is a scary bunker busting cousin to the MOAB, the GBU-57 A/B Massive Ordnance Penetrator or (MOP). It is a 30,000 pound capable of penetrating 200 feet or 61m before detonating. Most of these bunker busting bombs rely on accelerating to terminal velocity before impact, mass, and the shape and hardened construction to go down that far. They then use a delay fuse so that it explodes after penetrating in. The bomb is gps guided, and unlike the MOAB, is deliverable by a B-2 bomber. The B-2 is barely capable of carrying 2 of them. (They are a tight fit into the bomb bay.) There is test footage of these monsters being dropped.
The image of multiple missiles is actually flares to protect the plane from heat seeking anti aircraft missiles.
The Guy to the left of Stalin was actually the US President who gave the final order to employ nuclear weapons.
Harry S. Truman.
He was FDR's last vice president, and thus assumed office when FDR died in April 1945 - less than a month before Germany's surrender in May.
Thus, the responsibility fell to Truman - who only learned about the project to build the bomb after he became President.
He was Elected to serve a second term.
Harry S. Truman signed the executive order that ended segregation in the US military.
He also relieved General MacArthur for insubordination during the Korean war.
Fun fact: "Mother Of All Bombs" is not an official name for the bomb in any way, shape, or form. The name "Mother Of All Bombs" was applied by media outlets due to said acronym and in reference to Saddam Hussein's(whose army it was expected to most likely be used against when it debuted) promise of bringing the US-led Coalition "The mother of all wars" in the lead up to the Gulf War.
These same media outlets got upset over it being called the "Mother Of All Bombs" after it was actually used. Well, folks, if you don't like a bomb being called that, maybe you shouldn't have given it that name to begin with.
Pictured with Stalling is Harry S. Truman. He was President of the USA. This picture was from when he told Stallin about the Herosheema and the Nagasaki bombs and Stallin was unmoved because he already knew..
The guy beside Stalin was Harry Truman the successor to FDR as President of the USA. The detonation you were asking whether or not was real was accidentally the largest hydrogen bomb ever tested by the US. It was the Castle Bravo test. I recommended it before but the documentary Trinity and Beyond shows the progression of US nuclear development through the Cold War and shows actual military footage of the tests. The same director has made the documentaries Nuclear 911, about nuclear accidents and lots nuclear weapons, Atomic Filmmakers, about the Hollywood studio made to film and document the tests, Atomic Journeys, which shows several of the test sites and what was tested at those sites, and finally Nukes in Space, a film about nuclear tests in the upper atmosphere and space. All are good and interesting if you've ever wanted to know more about that part of the Cold War.
Harry S. Truman was the 33rd president of the United States, serving from 1945 to 1953 was the guy next to Stalin in that picture
When I was in the Air Force 2001-2005 the dollar value of a US soldier was commonly cited as a major factor in deciding (justifying) when to use air force munitions (and in general explosives in general). The cost to replace a soldier was somewhere between 1.1 million-1.4 million in 2001-2005 dollars (this included the $600k life insurance policy). Given that the JDAM cost around $250k it was basically always worth it just in terms of dollars to use any form of air power or artillery to kill an enemy. The limiting factor was usually availability or munitions and risk of civilian casualties/collateral damage. $450k to kill ~36 enemies is worth it just in dollars, not to mention other factors like maintaining the force, morale, much less the intrinsic value of a human life.
The other guy next to Stalin is/was Harry Truman. He took over as President after Franklin Roosevelt died in office a few months before the end of WW2. Some in the US wouldn't recognize him either. The atomic bomb project was so secret that Truman only found out about it after being sworn in a President. 4:25 Hardened steel casing (especially thickened tip) will burrow very deeply into the ground. I think they flew in lower formations so it wouldn't go even deeper. Probably part of it also is the planes just couldn't get that high with such a heavy load. But it turned out 10 to 15 thousand feet was about right anyway. It is estimated the bomb was still accelerating even as it hit the ground. And it was already super sonic at that point. 5:39 A Sikorsky (the designation escapes me now) heavy lift helicopter. Still used in forestry to fight forest fires & sometimes haul logs out of remote areas. 8:43 All of those are flares. Meant to steer infrared missiles (heat seekers) away from the plane.
First MOAB is an acronym for Multiple Ordinance Air Burst I believe, and that guy with Stalin, in the photo, is the POTUS Harry S Truman.
the moab bomb was a bunker buster it and bombs like it dont need drills to go underground. the massive weight gets them underground where they are designed to explode to get underground bunkers or when maybe a cave is being used. the moab has only been used once and it was dropped on a underground bunker during the afganastan conflict
That helicopter is called a Sky Crane. You should seem them fight wild fires.
On the subject of bombs, does The U.K. still find unexploded bombs from WW2. As a U.S. serviceman stationed in Germany during the 80's and a good part of the 90's it wasn't uncommon to find them during construction projects. the majority were ours but we found a lot of yours too.
The man standing next to Joseph Stalin was Harry Truman, 33rd President of the United States (1945-1953).
Watch the movie outbreak and see the power of the daisy cutter. My friends who went to Vietnam said that when they left their choppers after the daisy cutter was used for their "instant " helo landing pad they found Vietnamese soldiers a quarter of a mile away lying on the ground with blood coming out of their ears and elsewhere 🤔
The man next to Stalin was President Harry Truman. When Franklin Roosevelt died near the end of WW2, Harry moved from Vice President to President and he was the person who had to make the decision to drop the bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
That helicopter was the Sikorsky CH-54 Tarhe, also known as the Sky Crane. There was a pod that could be attached under it to carry troops or a field hospital. It was the army's heavy lifter. Those weren't bombs coming from the C-130 but flares. They are used to help protect the aircraft from heat seeking missiles, while chaff is used to help avoid radar guided missiles.
The CH-54.....Flying Crane... has the lift capacity of 20,000 pounds.
Those things being shot out from the MC-130 were not bombs they were flares that are used when a missile has been fired upon them.
Appreciate him converting the length of the bomb from Meters to Freedom Units. Michael Jordans is a unit I understand. Anything but Metrics over here.
2:12 "this guy" is Harry Truman, US president
Kabir, the first gentleman pictured with Stalin is President Franklin Roosevelt. I believe this was taken at the Yalta meeting. The second man pictured with Stalin is President Truman but I don't know when or where this picture was taken.
The daisy cutter bomb also was deployed from the C-130.
The pic of the MC130 was dumping flare.
The reaction to the US military's MOAB: The Mother of All Bombs. It was really interesting to watch the reaction and listen to the history of those big bombs.
There are bigger versions used for carrying massive ac units for skyscrapers and things like that.
"That guy" standing with Stalin is US president Harry Truman.
The bombs are able to go deep before exploding because of a very simple device you probably have in your kitchen. A timer. There have been "delayed fuse" bombs since at least the American War of 1812. Our National Anthem has a line "The bombs bursting in air". A fuse cut to length gave the time before exploding. Took a few shots to get the fuse right.
8:40 that's anti missile flare.
Always enjoyed Simon !!!
Make them big and not nuclear , then no radiation blowing in the wind.
Looks like Christmas Time was not good for parts of Europe with the F4 Tornado and Earthquake.
I have been seeing snow since Xmas Eve , even though it isn't much , I'm stuck in my driveway with only 8 inches & 20F everything has turned to ice and I'm on the backside of a dead end hill and the neighbor couldn't get out with his Suburu Outback.
Standing to the left of Stalin is US President Harry S. Truman the man ended up president when Franklin Roosevelt died near to the end of WW2. He (Truman) is the man who was President when the two atom bombs were dropped on Japan on his orders.
The weird looking helicopter is called an "Air crane".
2:15 that's Harry Truman. He succeeded FDR when he died in 1945. He is an interesting figure. A teetotaling Yankee preacher type guy, today you might call him a dork, he cried when he learned he was going to be sworn in as president. He had only been Vice President for 82 days. He stepped up though, interesting guy.
8:43 no, those are flares to throw off or distract heat seeking missiles
When people talk about the cost of using a weapon... one has to consider the alternative costs-
On the extreme end, what would it cost to have inserted enough soldiers to have killed those people in hand to hand combat?
Include all the recruiting and training to that point, and the cost to extract them afterwards,
don't forget the (lifetime) medical costs of any casualties, and the costs of recruiting and training their replacements.
Kabir, you should react to the song Angel Flight (Radio Tower Remix w/Lyrics (by songwriter/singer Radney Foster). The best video starts out with "In Memory of American Fallen" with a picture of a helmet placed on a upside down rifle. It is a sadly beautiful song about American military returning home for the last time and really shows the "angel wings" flares to the best effect.
Theodore Roosevelt is the president of the US in the pic with Stalen you were asking about.
MC 130 with all of the pyrotechnics coming out of it at 8:40 is not firing ordnance. Those are flares used to distract enemy heat seaking missiles. The hope is that the missile will chase a flare and not your warm engine.
That funny looking helicopter was the cargo type helicopter taken lift tanks they can lift heavy boxes full of equipment
The UK bombs used in WWII were developed to attack submarine pens inside 20ft thick concrete covered dock areas.
They say the blast of the MOAB is equivalent to 200 and 300 tons of high explosives.
The other man in the b/w pic was President Truman.
I like to call it the crowd pleaser
The crowd pleaser 😂😂
8:36 No, those are flares to throw off any heat seeking missiles.
Hiroshima (Hi-RŌ-shima not He-rō-SHĒĒ-ma) was decimated as was Nagasaki. My Japanese language professor was from Hiroshima (that’s how I learned the correct pronunciation 😎) and her mom was a survivor of the bombing. Tomoda-sensai was the only child as her mother was diagnosed, shortly after, with cancer from radiation poisoning. There is a true video about two salesmen who lived in Nagasaki but were called to the home office in Hiroshima. They survived that bombing but lost sight of each other trying to find transportation back to Nagasaki. The main character made it back to Nagasaki just in time to go through that bombing. He survived both and went on to lecture at schools about what he went through. Survivors of the bombings (hibakusha) were shunned by society in Japan. Their opportunities for employment were slim to none, so they had to turn to the government for help. In the video you learn more about that because that was the reason he waited so very long to tell his story. He did not want to bring shame on his family. Tsutomu Yamaguchi is his name. “Over the last few years Yamaguchi shared his personal accounts publicly. He spoke at the United Nations, wrote books and appeared in the documentary "Twice Bombed, Twice Survived: The Doubly Atomic Bombed of Hiroshima and Nagasaki" by filmmaker Hideo Nakamura.”
The name moab is actually stands for massive ordinance air blast
Lots of people bring up the economics of war and the human cost as if they aren't intertwined. By using better and more equipment, the total economic cost increases significantly, but it also lowers the cost in lives, both civilian and soldier. It's a calculation that America prefers heavily over the meat-grinders that were the World Wars, Korean War, and Vietnam
The picture of the plane was a flare deployment probably trying to confuse ground based heat seakers.
The helicopter was used to carry vehicles mainly
@9:30 "16million that is a lot of money" I wouldn't be surprised if we spend that much on ammo for training in a week.
5:20 BLU-82 hut 🏈 lol
Definitely keep looking into Simon’s channels. Megaprojects and geographics especially are great. I recommend the f117 Nighthawk and the A-12 Archangel
That guy in the glasses next to Stallon was president Harry S. Trumam, the 33rd POTUS.
Cross reference the cost of the bomb, with the number of enemy killed cross referenced with the potential friendly soldiers lives you saved, instead of having to fight them humanly
M.O. A. B. - I would pronounce that as Mo -ab, the same way I pronounce Moab, Utah.
I told you the Moab was no joke. Now what you need to look at is Project Thor. AKA rods from God. That's what frightens me the most. Once it's deployed not even a nuclear device can stop it and when it hits it explodes and the kinetic Shockwave does as much damage as a small nuclear device 5-9 mile kill rate depending on the terrain. Remember what I said about us and killing. We're so good at it it even frightens us.
That was Harry S. Truman next to Stalin, the President of the United States at the time.
The gentleman next to ZStalin is President Harry S. Truman who authorized the nuclear bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
@Kabir Considers What you see in the photo of the MC130 are flares, they are counter measures for heat missiles. Now the cost analysis, the same target ground troops, training, food, transportation, equipment and lives vs. one bomb, one aircraft and a seven man flight crew. Question is it's use cost affective or worth it?
Now you definitely have to react to the FOAB by the russian military! 😳🚀
The A-130 plane and its combat variant, the AC-130 "angle of death", have a unique flare system as seen in 8:43 that looks like an angle with wings, thus the nickname. Its just a bunch of flares that get ejected from ports on the airframe so any heat-seeking weapons will get confused and go for the flares instead of the planes hot engines.
*angel
find the clip from the tv show future weapons they tested it in the nevada desert it rattled the windows in houses 60 miles away
The man next to Stalin was President Truman. the President after President Franklin D Roosevelt.