Did the U.S. Lose a Crucial Testing Ground When It Left Afghanistan?

Members of the 82nd Airborne Division test C4 in Afghanistan in 2002

-  THOMAS MUTCH

FOURTEEN YEARS AFTER DUBBING ITS most powerful non-nuclear weapon ever developed "the Mother of All Bombs (MOAB), the U.S. military finally found an opportunity to test the ordnance on the battlefield. In April 2017, intelligence officials had located a large cell of Islamic State Khorasan, the terrorist group also known as ISIS-K, hiding in a cave complex in Nangarhar province on the border with Pakistan.

The GBU-43/B Massive Ordnance Air Blast, to use its official name, had shown promise during demonstrations in testing grounds, such as Eglin Air Force Base in Florida, since its unveiling in 2003. But the Pentagon had never deployed it in actual battle, over concerns about civilian casualties. This cell, however, was believed to be remote enough for a MOAB deployment.

According to the initial assessment by the Afghan Ministry of Defense and local media reports, the surprise blast swept through the caves with ease, causing at least 36 casualties, without harming any known civilians. (The U.S. government never publicly released its own damage assessment.) For the Pentagon, this was more than a strike against terrorists: It served to demonstrate the feasibility of its newly developed weapons systems.

In many ways, Afghanistan was the ideal battleground for trialing new technology. Unlike in Iraq and Syria, much of the fighting took place in rural or mountainous areas with low concentrations of civilians. Using the GBU-43/B near urban centers would constitute a war crime under international law because the force would have been "indiscriminate," causing civilian deaths and the destruction of critical infrastructure.