US Air Force tests superbomb
The US Air Force tonight carried out its first test of the biggest conventional bomb in the US military’s arsenal, a 21,000lb (9,450kg) weapon that could play a dramatic role in any attack on Iraq.
Cheryl Irwin, a Pentagon spokeswoman, said the test was completed at Eglin Air Force Base, Florida, but she did not know whether it was considered successful.
The bomb, known as the Massive Ordnance Air Blast, or MOAB, is guided to its target by satellite signals. It was dropped out the rear of a C-130 transport plane, officials said.
The bomb is so powerful that its detonation was expected to create a mushroom cloud visible for miles.
Asked about the test at a Pentagon news conference, US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld would not say whether it would be used in an Iraq war and he declined to discuss its capabilities.
“This is not small,” he said.
Separately, the Pentagon’s No 2 official said in a speech to the Veterans of Foreign Wars that, if President George W Bush decided to invade Iraq, it would be a “war of liberation” as well as an effort to rid Iraq of weapons banned by the United Nations.
“Those very weapons are the source of our concern,” said Deputy Secretary of Defence Paul Wolfowitz. “The issue is not about Iraqi oil. If the United States had wanted access to Iraqi oil we could have dropped our whole policy 12 years ago, lifted the sanctions and let Saddam Hussein have his weapons of mass destruction.”
“No, if there’s going to be a war, it will be a war to disarm Saddam’s weapons of mass terror,” he said. “But it will also be, like wars that you fought in, a war of liberation, a war to secure peace and freedom.”
The US military is putting the final pieces of combat power in place in anticipation of an order by Bush to attack Iraq and depose Saddam. More than 200,000 US forces are now within striking range.
The Air Force bomb scheduled for its initial test today is much bigger than another conventional bomb. The next-biggest is the 15,000lb BLU-82, dubbed the Daisy Cutter.
Jake Swinson, spokesman for the Air Armament Centre in Florida said there would be no on-site news coverage of the test for safety reasons, but an Air Force chase plane would take video that would be made available later to news organisations.
Other officials said the Air Force expected to have the bomb available for use in an Iraq war.
“If the warfighter wanted to use it, I’m sure we could make some available,” Swinson said, adding that he had no information on whether or when the weapon might be used in combat.
