Father of All Bombs Aviation Thermobaric Bomb of Increased Power ( ATBIP ) ( ) , nicknamed " Father of All Bombs " ( FOAB ) ( Отец всех бомб ) , is a Russian - made air - delivered / land - activated thermobaric weapon . In describing the bomb ' s destructive power , Russian deputy chief of the general staff Alexander Rukshin was quoted as saying , " all that is alive merely evaporates . " The bomb is reportedly four times more powerful than the US military ' s GBU - 43 / B Massive Ordnance Air Blast bomb ( whose official military acronym " MOAB " is often colloquially said as the " Mother of All Bombs " ) . This makes it the most powerful conventional ( non - nuclear ) weapon in the world . The veracity of Russia ' s claims concerning the weapon ' s size and power have been questioned by US defense analysts . The bomb was successfully field - tested in the late evening of September 11 , 2007 . According to the Russian military , the new weapon will replace several smaller types of nuclear bomb s in its arsenal . Description . The thermobaric device yields the equivalent of 44 tons of TNT using 7 . 8 tons of a new type of high explosive . Because of this , the bomb ' s blast and pressure wave have a similar effect to a small tactical nuclear weapon , though on a smaller scale . The bomb works by detonating in mid - air . Most damage is inflicted by a supersonic shockwave and extremely high temperatures . Thermobaric weapon s differ from conventional explosive weapons in that they generate a longer , more sustained blast wave with greater temperatures . In doing so , they produce more damage over a larger area than a conventional weapon of similar mass . Compared with MOAB . According to General Alexander Rushkin , the Russian deputy chief of staff , the new bomb is smaller than the MOAB but much deadlier because the temperature at the centre of the blast is twice as high . He says the bomb ' s capabilities are comparable to nuclear weapons , but unlike a nuclear weapon known for its radioactive fallout , use of the weapon does not damage or pollute the environment beyond the blast radius . In comparison , the MOAB produces the equivalent of 11 tons of TNT from 8 tons of high explosive . The claimed blast radius of the FOAB is 300 meters , almost double that of the MOAB , and the temperature produced is twice as high . Analysis and veracity . Some defense analysts question both the yield of the bomb and whether it could be deployed by a Tupolev bomber . A report by " Wired magazine " says photos and the video of the event suggest that it is designed to be deployed from the rear of a slow moving cargo plane , and they note that the bomb - test video released by the Russians never shows both the bomb and the Tupolev bomber in the same camera shot . There are also questions on what type of explosives it actually used . They quoted Tom Burky , a senior research scientist at Battelle , saying " It ' s not even clear what kind of weapon the Russians tested . " He questions if it was what some experts call a fuel - air explosive or if it was a thermobaric weapon . " Fuel - air and thermobaric bombs differ in usefulness " . Burky says that the weapon depicted in the video appears to be a fuel - air explosive , based on its shape . Phillip Coyle , an adviser to the Washington , D . C . Center for Defense Information , says he is skeptical about Father of All Bombs ' true power . " It ( the blast ) may be bigger than MOAB , " he concedes , " but it ' s not four times bigger – at best 50 percent bigger , just going on the bomb ' s size and how these bombs are designed . " John Pike , an analyst at the think tank GlobalSecurity , says he believes the Father of All Bombs is roughly as powerful as the Russians claim . What he does not necessarily believe is that the weapon is new . He says the Russians have possessed a range of thermobaric weapons for at least four decades . Pike says : Robert Hewson , an editor for Jane ' s Information Group , told the BBC it was likely that FOAB indeed represented the world ' s biggest non - nuclear bomb . " You can argue about the numbers and how you scale this but the Russians have a long and proven history of developing weapons in the thermobaric class , " he says . UPI claimed the device " would enormously boost Russia ' s conventional military capabilities . "