Father of All Bombs

The FOAB device uses about seven tons of a new type of high explosive and allegedly yields the equivalent of 44 tonnes of TNT (180 GJ), quadruple that of the American MOAB. Because of this, the bomb's blast and pressure wave have a similar effect to a small tactical nuclear weapon. The bomb works by detonating in mid-air. Thermobaric weapons differ from conventional explosive weapons in that they use atmospheric oxygen (rather than an oxidizing agent) to generate a longer, more sustained blast wave with greater temperatures. In doing so, they can produce more damage over a larger area than a conventional weapon of similar mass. According to General Aleksandr Rukshin, the Russian Deputy Chief of the General Staff, the new bomb was smaller than the MOAB but much deadlier because the temperature at the centre of the blast is twice as high.

Some defense analysts question both the yield of the bomb and whether it could be deployed by a Tupolev Tu-160 bomber. A report by Wired says photos and the video of the event suggest that it is designed to be deployed from the rear of a slow moving cargo plane, and they note that the bomb-test video released by the Russians never shows both the bomb and the bomber in the same camera shot. There are also questions on what type of explosives it used. They quoted Tom Burky, a senior research scientist at Battelle, saying "It's not even clear what kind of weapon the Russians tested." He questions if it was what some experts call a fuel-air explosive or if it was a thermobaric weapon. "Fuel-air and thermobaric bombs differ in usefulness". Burky says that the weapon depicted in the video appears to be a fuel-air explosive, based on its shape. Weapons analyst Sascha Lange of German SWP speaking at Deutsche Welle pointed out multiple discrepancies in the released Russian video and expressed his skepticism about the Russian claim. John Pike, an analyst at the think tank GlobalSecurity, says he believes the weapon is roughly as powerful as the Russians claim. What he does not necessarily believe is that the weapon is new. He says the Russians have possessed a range of thermobaric weapons for at least four decades. Robert Hewson, an editor for Jane's Information Group, told the BBC it was likely that FOAB indeed represented the world's biggest non-nuclear bomb. "You can argue about the numbers and how you scale this but the Russians have a long and proven history of developing weapons in the thermobaric class", he says. UPI claimed the device "would enormously boost Russia's conventional military capabilities".