Here's How Much the 'Mother of All Bombs' Costs
Policy + Politics

Here's How Much the 'Mother of All Bombs' Costs

Defense Department

The United States Defense Department likes to show off. After proving it can move with the quick strike capability of a cobra as it did when it launched 59 tomahawk missiles at a Syrian airfield, the Pentagon on Thursday decided to up the ante by showing its muscle. 

They dropped the largest non-nuclear bomb against ISIS in the Nangarhar Province in Afghanistan. The GBU-43B known as the Massive Ordnance Air Blast (MOAB) or the Mother of All Bombs, is a 20,000-pound monster. The military information site Deagel claims it took $314 million to develop the bomb and has a unit cost of $16 million. But the unit number of $16 million was disputed by an Air Force representative who told one of our content partners, Business Insider, that the unit cost is $170,000.

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