The US Navy detonated a 40,000-pound explosive near its new aircraft carrier in shock trials to see how the ship would hold up in combat. The massive

The US Navy set off a 40,000-pound explosive to see how its new supercarrier would hold up in a fight

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2021-06-22 01:30:03

The US Navy detonated a 40,000-pound explosive near its new aircraft carrier in shock trials to see how the ship would hold up in combat.

The massive explosive was set off underwater near USS Gerald R. Ford, the first of a new class of advanced aircraft carriers, in the Atlantic Ocean about 100 miles off the coast of Florida last Friday.

The explosive the Navy set off in testing last week, while much farther from the ship than a naval mine would be, was much larger. It was almost twice as large as the GBU-43/B Massive Ordnance Air Blast, a rarely-used heavy munition commonly known as the "Mother of All Bombs" because it is the most powerful non-nuclear weapon the US has.

The blast, which was identified as an "experimental explosion" by the US Geological Survey, was so powerful that it clocked a 3.9 on the Richter scale, the equivalent of a small earthquake.

The Navy declined to provide any additional information on the configuration of the explosive used in the trials, how far it was from the ship when it was detonated, or why the specific yield was chosen.