Forget MOAB: Meet The King Of All Bombs
The GBU-43/B Massive Ordnance Air Blast Bomb (MOAB) used against ISIS is the largest non-nuclear weapon in the United States arsenal. Weighing in at 22,000 pounds and boasting a blast radius up to a mile wide, it’s an impressive piece of military hardware.
But how does this so-called “Mother Of All Bombs” compare to the most powerful bomb of all time?
The Bomb That (Literally) Shook The World
The seismic shockwave from the explosion could still be measured on its third revolution around the Earth.
In 1961, the RDS-220 hydrogen bomb was tested for the first — and only— time. Codenamed “Ivan,” this colossal thermonuclear weapon was 4.5 million times more powerful than the “Mother Of All Bombs” used against ISIS.
“Ivan” was dropped on a remote island north of Russia by a specially-modified TU-95 bomber. Detonation occurred at 11:32.
The mushroom cloud was 7x taller than Mt. Everest.
34 miles away, the town of Severny simply vanished. 100 miles away, the explosion ripped the roofs from stone structures and shattered wooden buildings to pieces. Even 560 miles from the blast, the shockwave was still strong enough to break windowpanes.
In fact, the seismic shockwave from the explosion was so powerful, it could still be measured by sensors on its third revolution around the Earth.
Towering over ground zero, a radioactive mushroom cloud rose 40 miles into the sky — seven times the height of Mt. Everest and close to the boundary of outer space.
Destroyer Of Worlds
As terrifying as the RDS-220’s test was, the weapon was theoretically capable of much more. The bomb’s design supported an alternate configuration with a 100 megaton yield — twice as powerful as the one dropped in 1961.
Such a weapon might have obliterated entire countries with a single hit.
Even scaled down to 50 megatons, the RDS-220 is the undisputed king of bombs. It is without question the most powerful weapon ever wielded in human history.
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