Russia tests ‘father of all bombs’
RUSSIA: Russia has tested the world’s most powerful vacuum
bomb, which unleashes a destructive shockwave with the power of a
nuclear blast, the military said on Tuesday, dubbing it the “father of
all bombs”.
The bomb is the latest in a series of new Russian weapons and policy
moves as President Vladimir Putin tries to reassert Moscow’s role on the
international stage.
“Test results of the new airborne weapon have shown that its
efficiency and power is commensurate with a nuclear weapon,” Alexander
Rukshin, Russian deputy armed forces chief of staff, told Russia’s state
ORT First Channel television. The same report was later shown on the
state-sponsored Vesti channel.
“You will now see it in action, the bomb which has no match in the
world is being tested at a military site.”
It showed a Tupolev Tu-160 strategic bomber dropping the bomb over a
testing ground. A large explosion followed.
Pictures showed what looked like a flattened multi-storey block of
flats surrounded by scorched soil and boulders. “The soil looks like a
lunar landscape,” the report said. “The defence ministry stresses this
military invention does not contradict a single international treaty.
Russia is not unleashing a new arms race.”
Such devices generally detonate in two stages. First a small blast
disperses a main load of explosive material into a cloud, which then
either spontaneously ignites in air or is set off by a second charge.
This explosion generates a pressure wave that reaches much further
than that from a conventional explosive. The consumption of gases in the
blast also generates a partial vacuum that can compound damage and
injuries caused by the explosion itself.
“The main destruction is inflicted by an ultrasonic shockwave and an
incredibly high temperature,” the reports said. “All that is alive
merely evaporates.”
Rukshin said: “At the same time, I want to stress that the action of
this weapon does not contaminate the environment, in contrast to a
nuclear one.”
The Tu-160 supersonic bomber that dropped the bomb, widely known
under its NATO nickname of “Blackjack”, is the heaviest combat aircraft
ever built. Putin, who has overseen the roll-out of new tactical and
anti-aircraft missiles and combat aircraft, has ordered “Blackjacks” and
the Tu-95 “Bear” bombers to patrol around the world.
The report said the new bomb was much stronger than the U.S.-built
Massive Ordnance Air Blast bomb — MOAB, also known under its name
“Mother of All Bombs”. “So, Russian designers called the new weapon
‘Father of All Bombs’,” it said.
Showing the orange-painted U.S. prototype, the report said the
Russian bomb was four times more powerful — 44 tonnes of TNT equivalent
— and the temperature at the epicentre of its blast was two times
higher.
Moscow, Wednesday, Reuters |