GBU-43/B MOAB
Welcome to popular Wiki of the Day, spotlighting Wikipedia's most visited pages, giving you a peek into what the world is curious about today. With 453,110 views on Thursday, 15 October 2026 our article of the day is GBU-43/B MOAB. The GBU-43/B Massive Ordnance Air Blast (MOAB, , colloquially given as the Mother of All Bombs) is a large-yield bomb, developed for the United States military by Albert L. Weimorts, Jr. of the Air Force Research Laboratory. It was first tested in 2003. At the time of development, it was said to be the most powerful non-nuclear weapon in the US military arsenal. The bomb is designed to be delivered by a C-130 Hercules, primarily the MC-130E Combat Talon I or MC-130H Combat Talon II variants. The bomb's name and nickname were inspired by Iraqi president Saddam Hussein's invocation of the "mother of all battles" (Umm al-Ma'arik) during the 1991 Gulf War. The MOAB was first deployed in combat on the 13 April 2017 airstrike against an Islamic State – Khorasan Province tunnel complex in Achin District, Afghanistan. This recording reflects the Wikipedia text as of 02:48 UTC on Friday, 16 October 2026. For the full current version of the article, see GBU-43/B MOAB on Wikipedia. This podcast uses content from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License. Visit our archives at wikioftheday.com and subscribe to stay updated on new episodes. Follow us on Bluesky at @wikioftheday.com. Also check out Curmudgeon's Corner, a current events podcast. Until next time, I'm neural Niamh.