Russia’s military has successfully tested what it describes as the world’s most powerful non-nuclear air-delivered bomb. The new ordnance, nicknamed the “Dad Of All Bombs” is four times more powerful than the US “Mother Of All Bombs”.”The tests have shown that the new air-delivered ordnance is comparable to a nuclear weapon in its efficiency and capability,” Col Gen Alexander Rukshin, a deputy chief of the Russian military’s General Staff, said.

The statement reflected the Kremlin’s efforts to restore Russia’s global clout and rebuild the nation’s military might.

The US Massive Ordnance Air Blast, a large-yield satellite-guided, air delivered bomb, had been described as the most powerful non-nuclear weapon in history.

While the Russian bomb contained about 7 tons of high explosives compared with more than 8 tons of explosives in the US bomb, it is four times more powerful because it uses explosives developed with the use of nanotechnology.

While the American bomb was equivalent to 11 tons of TNT, the Russian one was equivalent to 44 tons of regular explosives. The Russian weapon’s blast radius is 1,000 feet, twice as big as that of the US design, the report said.

Like its US predecessor, first tested in 2003, the Russian “Dad Of All Bombs” is a so-called thermobaric weapon that explodes in an intense fireball combined with a devastating blast. It explodes in a terrifying nuclear bomb-like mushroom cloud and wreaks destruction through a massive shockwave created by the air burst and high temperature.