posted on Apr, 25 2010 @ 01:23 AM
The MOAB has a guidance system. It has a smaller blast, but it will land on its target. The FOAB is a "dumb bomb," meaning you drop it and you hope
it lands where you want it to. Now, these bombs are very, very powerful so missing isn't a huge deal, but there is something to be said for
precision.
There is also the Massive Ordinance Penetrator, which is another U.S. bomb. It's not as explosively powerful as either the MOAB or the FOAB, but
it's still incredibly huge and it is the only one out of the three that is designed to penetrate into bunkers and underground structures.
Some U.S. weapons are actually shifting towards making explosions that are smaller in size, but more powerful within the blast zone. They achieve this
by mixing heavy metal nanoparticles in with the explosives. This is a much more useful advancement, because it gives you the same "kick the target's
butt" ability as a larger explosion, with much less of the "blow up everything near the target" drawbacks.
When it comes to sheer power and intimidation factor, the FOAB wins hands down. If you don't like a city block somewhere, a FOAB will get rid of it
for you. Russia is not actively fighting any major wars right now, so it can be expected to build show-off weapons such as the FOAB. The role they
needed to fill with the FOAB was "Make it go boom louder than the MOAB," which it does quite well.
The U.S. is actively waging two wars right now, so it can be expected to design weapons based on what roles need to be filled within those wars.
Another way you could look at it is this: The MOAB was built to intimidate "terrorists" in Afghanistan and Iraq, the FOAB was built to intimidate
Americans.