Aircraft
U.S. Drops 'Mother of All Bombs' on ISIS Tunnel Complex
The Air Force Research Laboratory developed the GBU-43/B Massive Ordnance Air Blast conventional bomb in 2003 but it was never used.
Technicians stand next to a GBU-43/B Massive Ordnance Air Blast bomb in this U.S. Air Force archive photo.
Technicians stand next to a GBU-43/B Massive Ordnance Air Blast bomb in this U.S. Air Force archive photo.

The U.S. military for the first time in combat used a GBU-43/B Massive Ordnance Air Blast (MOAB) bomb to strike an ISIS-Khorasan target in Afghanistan, the government announced on April 13. The 21,500-pound, precision-guided munition, nicknamed the “mother of all bombs,” was developed in 2003 at the time of the Iraq War but never used.