On Wednesday Russian state-run First Channel television reported that the military had successfully tested a new conventional air bomb whose power surpasses all existing air ordnances. Experts called the new weapon "The Father of All Bombs," hinting at its main competitor - the US MOAB, or Massive Ordnance Aerial Blast, commonly known as the "Mother of All Bombs."

The First Channel showed deputy head of the Russian General Staff, Colonel General Alexander Rukshin, saying the test had shown that the bomb's effectiveness can be compared to that of nuclear ordnance but stressed that the new weapon was not polluting the environment.

The general described the bomb as using a fuel-air explosive, a technology in which special fuel is first sprayed over the target area before it is primed by a small explosion. The result is a huge blast with very high temperatures in the center and extremely powerful shockwaves. In Russian, such devices are also called vacuum bombs.

An official from the weapons design bureau said that the Russian bomb was four times more powerful than the US MOAB and the temperature in the center of the explosion was two times higher. The coverage area of the Russian bomb was 20 times higher, the official said. He added that these factors allowed the design bureau to lower the demands for the bomb's accuracy and thus reduce its price.

The Russian bomb's superiority is not surprising. The U.S.-made MOAB is a traditional bomb that is filled with eight and a half tons of solid explosives, while the Russian device, which as yet has no official name, uses more effective air-fuel technology, also known as thermobaric weapons. But previously it was impossible to build a fuel-air bomb of such power - large fuel clouds would be dispersed by the  wind. Russian experts claimed they used "nanotechnology" in the new weapon, but did not go into details.

After the test, the Russian Defense Ministry has stressed that the new weapon was not violating any international treaty and that Russia did not intend to enter an arms race.

In fact, the ability to match international treaties is the main feature of the high-power air bombs. Used against enemy personnel and heavy bunkers, such bombs are very effective. Although a nuclear device would do the job much better than an air bomb or even an artillery shell, the problem of using nuclear weapons in any conflict is the fallout and global disaster. Thus, armies are forced, out of environmental concern, to build large conventional bombs instead.

NATO officials refused to comment on the news. "We do not comment on such events. There are a lot of new technologies created in different spheres in the world. Apart from this, we have learned the news from media reports," the RIA-Novosti news agency quoted an unnamed NATO official as saying. 

By Kirill Bessonov