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    US Plans to Arm B-52 With ‘Mother of All Bombs’

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    The US is seeking to modify its B-52 Stratofortress heavy bombers to accommodate carrying and delivering the so-called “mother of all bombs,” a creative nickname given to the Massive Ordnance Air Blast (MOAB) weapon, according to a new report.

    The bomb made waves last April when a US plane dropped a GBU-43/B MOAB on an allegedly Daesh-run terrorist camp in . The bomb is regarded as the most powerful non-nuclear bomb in the US weapons arsenal. April 13, 2017, marked the first employment of the bomb in combat.

    The Air Force is seeking information from industry regarding “sources that may possess the expertise, capabilities and experience to meet the qualification requirement” to deploy the bombs onto the B-52, one of the oldest pieces of military equipment still used by the US, according to a Request For Information released June 21.

    When the weapon was dropped in 2017, air crews simply released the bomb from a cradle within a C-130 cargo plane, letting gravity and Global Positioning System-satellite guidance do the rest of the work.

    The Stratofortress planes have “limitations” when it comes to carrying heavy weapons beneath its wings, according to the RFI, which require modifications to carry munitions heavier than 5,000 pounds. B-52s typically carry most of their weapons in an internal weapons bay, but the bay doors are only 28 feet long and the MOAB is 30 feet long.

    “When [the current external weapons pylon] was…

    Continue Reading This Article At Sputnik News

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