[terraX]

Russia's army on Tuesday unveiled a new seven-tonne explosive device on national television, touting the anti-terrorism bomb as four times more powerful than the strongest US explosives.



The bomb "permits us state security and at the same time the ability to battle against international terrorism in any situation, in any region," Russian Army chief General Alexandre Rushkin said.



The bomb, also known as a high-impulse thermobaric weapon, disperses a cloud of hydrocarbons. It explodes in a fraction of a second, setting the area on fire and emitting very strong heat.

This technology originated from the Vietnam war, where American soldiers called it "daisy clippers" because it was used to deforest jungles with devastating effect.

Rushkin likened the test results to the effects of a nuclear bomb.

Russian television showed a 30-metre (98-foot) four-storey building reduced to rubble after it was hit by one of these 7,100 kilogramme (16,000 pound) bombs.

No independent experts were interviewed regarding the still-unnamed bomb on Russian television and it is not possible to determine how new this bomb is or the veracity of the claims made by the Russian army.

The Russian military says it has successfully tested the "dad of all bombs," a powerful thermobaric device that is said to be the world's most powerful non-nuclear weapon.

It is environmentally friendly, compared to a nuclear bomb, and it will enable us to ensure national security and at the same time stand up to international terrorism in any part of the globe and in any situation," says Alexander Rukshin, deputy chief of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces. He compares the power of the device to that of a nuclear weapon.

RIA Novosti has more on the test. So does the Associated Press.

BBC News explains that these "weapons create a huge pressure wave which effectively sucks the air out of the lungs of anyone unfortunate enough to be within range." The Discovery Channel looks at the utility of these bombs in tight spaces or heavily populated areas.

The USA has the "Mother of all Bombs," which GlobalSecurity.org says weighs 21,000 pounds and packs a big punch.

a bomb that reportedly equals a nuclear bomb…and most assuredly will scare cats:

“Test results of the new airborne weapon have shown that its efficiency and power is commensurate with a nuclear weapon,” Alexander Rukshin, deputy head of Russia’s armed force chief of staff, told Russia’s ORT First Channel television.

“You will now see it in action, the bomb which has no match in the world is being tested at a military site,” the report said.

It showed a Tupolev Tu-160 strategic bomber dropping the bomb over a testing ground. A large explosion followed.

According to the report, the vacuum bomb is a kind of fuel-air explosive. It’s dropped or fired and the first explosive explodes open the container at X height, and then fuel is mixed with oxygen in a cloud. The second charge ignites the cloud, which essentially engulfs buildings and anything else.

And if this depresses you, the cloud DOES have a silver lining:

“At the same time, I want to stress that the action of this weapon does not contaminate the environment, in contrast to a nuclear one.”