What is the biggest weapon/bomb the US has that is not a nuke?

Answer 1

Okay I found it. The MOAB is the largest satellite guided bomb but not the largest ever. Apparently it was the Grand Slam.

GBU-43/B "Mother Of All Bombs"
MOAB - Massive Ordnance Air Blast Bomb
The GBU-43/B is large, powerful and accurately delivered. high explosive. The GBU-43/B Massive Ordnance Air Blast Bomb [MOAB] weapon is a 21,000 lbs total weight GPS-guided munition with fins and inertial gyro for pitch and roll control. MOAB is a guided bomb which delivers the 18,700 lb BLU-120/B warhead bomb with KMU-593/B GPS/INS. The MOAB is the largest-ever satellite-guided, air-delivered weapon in history [not the largest ever, but the largest satellite guided]. The 21,600-pound MOAB is an improved replacement for the unguided 15,000-pound BLU-82 Daisy Cutter. It is 30 feet long with a diameter of 40.5 inches. The warhead is a blast-type warhead. It was developed in only nine weeks to be available for the Iraq campaign, but it was not used in combat.

T14 M110 22,000-lb Grand Slam
In 1945 Barnes Wallis developed the 22,000lb Grand Slam, which remains the largest conventional bomb ever used in action. The 10 ton (22,000 pound) "Grand Slam" was 26-feet, 6-inches long. Its hardened casing was cast in a single piece in a sand mold, using a concrete core. The "Grand Slam" could reportedly penetrate though 20+ ft of concrete. The first one was dropped on Germany on 14th March 1945. It hit the ground about 80 feet from the target, but it created a crater over 100 feet deep. This bomb was used with great effect against viaducts or railways leading to the Ruhr and also against several U-boat shelters. In one raid on 27 March 1945 against the U-Bootbunkerwerft "Valentin" submarine pens near Bremen, two Grand Slams penetrated 7 meters (23 feet) of reinforced concrete, bringing down the roof. In total, 41 Grand Slams were dropped during the war.

Answer 2

MOAB ( Massive ordanance air burst)

The largest conventional weapon ever used bu the U.S. was the T12

The T-12 demolition bomb was a weapon produced by the United States designed to create an Earth Quake bomb effect. It achieved this by having an extremely thick nose section, which was supposed to penetrate deeply into the earth (earth-penetrating weapons are often referred to as EPW). It was designed to attack targets invulnerable to conventional "soft" bombs, such as bunkers and viaducts.

The T-12 was a further development of the concept initiated with the United Kingdom's Tallboy and Grand Slam weapons: a hardened, highly aerodynamic bomb of the greatest possible weight designed to be dropped from the highest possible altitude in order to destroy hardened targets. The T-12 weighed 43,600 lb (nearly 20 metric tons), which was twice the size of the US previous largest bomb, the American-built version of the British Grand Slam, the Bomb, GP, 22,000-lb, M110 (T-14). Only one plane, the Convair B-36 Peacemaker was designed to carry the T-12, although a B-29 Superfortress was converted for testing. The T-12 was not a simple scale up of the M110 but incorporated modifications based on testing and calculations.

It is also important to clarify a further nickname imparted to this weapon — the Grand Slam bomb, which more correctly refers to the T-12's 22,000 lb (10,000 kg) predecessor. Additionally, "Grand Slam" was the name of a project to modify B-36 bombers to carry nuclear bombs, creating further confusion.

Weapons of comparable size to the T-12, such as the BLU-82 and GBU-43 Massive Ordnance Air Blast bombs, remain in the US inventory of superbombs, but their utility is limited outside the realm of psychological weapons and demolition. They are not hardened and so lack the hard target destruction capability of the T-12 and its cousins. Precision-guided munitions (or "smart bombs") have mostly removed the need for gigantic charges in air-dropped bombs. The T-12 itself was superseded by earth-penetrating nuclear weapons, which weighed much less but could achieve the same penetration.

Answer 3

The Fuel-air bomb which sprays a mist of fuel and ignites it. It's like a nuke-lite. The blast kicks like a little tactical nuke without the fallout.

Answer 4

Chuck Norris

Answer 5

I don't know for sure, but my guess for biggest in size would be the 15,000 pound 'Daisy Cutter'

Perhaps a Fuel Air type bomb would have more explosive capability

Answer 6

Used to be a terrific world-wide reputation...not anymore...better stick with the nuke as the rep is shot, and big bangs get heard (although not always in a positive way...)

Answer 7

Michael Moore

Answer 8

The "Daisy Cutter"... it is dropped on a parachute from the back of a C-130 and has the ability, depending on terrain, to kill people in excess of 3/4 mile away...

Answer 9

well some say ts the MOAB other say its the daisy cutter,
a newer version of moab is functional..Its bunker buster type missile with a sheathing that's been made of expended uranium rods for deep penetration and its twice the payload of the moab with a daisy cutter like effect upon detonation...detonation can occur 3 ways..on impact..or below surface to set depth and by remote control.. the bomb can fly itself to the target and is stealthy..cannot be picked up by radar and has a guidance system similar to a cruise missile..this one has Bin Laden's name written on it....and get this...the object needs to be painted but they use sat to paint the target...I wouldn't want to be him.

Answer 10

The movie Jarhead, it was the biggest bomb I have seen in years!