Gabbar 

Suddenly, everyone is MOAB savvy: how it was developed in 2003 to destroy a lot of surface targets, its size — 30 feet — its weight — 9,525kg — how much  it cost $16 million (Rs 106 crore), and another $300 million to develop. And yet, the MOAB is not the largest non-nuclear bomb in the US military’s arsenal. That would be the massive ordnance penetrator (MOP). It weighs 13,607kg. While the MOAB can destroy buildings and things just below the surface, like caves, the MOP can destroy hardened tunnels and bunkers. It can burrow through 200 feet of earth and 60 feet of concrete before detonating.

Shakaal 

The MOAB is apparently no match for Russia’s aviation thermobaric bomb of increased power, the FOAB (father of all bombs) to US’s mother of all bombs. This is because thermobaric weapons, unlike conventional explosive weapons, use oxygen from the atmosphere, rather than carrying an oxidising agent in their explosives. They generate a longer, more sustained blast wave with higher temperatures. Basically, larger area covered and greater damage. Russian general staff Alexander Rukshin once said of it: “...all that is alive merely evaporates”. 

Mogambo 

Speaking of Russian expertise, there is the Perimeter or Dead Hand, a semi mythical 1970s Cold-War-era automatic nuclear-control system. Its principle: automatic launch of Russian nuclear missiles in response to a nuclear offensive. Aleksandr Zheleznyakov, an expert in this domain, said of the Perimeter’s purpose: “to cool down all these hotheads and extremists. No matter what was going to happen, there still would be revenge”. Does it still exist? There is a 2011 statement by the commander of the Russian Strategic Missile Forces confirming the same.

Dr Dang 

Barely a week before MOAB, there was the Syria tragedy. Killer: sarin. Released by: no one. Chemical warfare became a full-fledged thing only in the mid-19th century. The US produced phosgene, mustard gas. Deadlier still were sarin, tabun and soman, nerve agents evolving out of Germany. At the time of the Vietnam War, US used Agent Orange — a concoction of herbicides. Later, during the Iran-Iraq war, Saddam Hussein unleashed a potpourrie of tabun and sarin and mustard gas. And it is still not over. There is a US-North Korea N-confrontation brewing. Some of Kim Jong-Un’s missiles are said to be equipped with sarin. 

Upala Sen