Russia's army on Tuesday unveiled a new seven-tonne explosive device on national television, touting the anti-terrorism bomb as four times more powerful than the strongest US explosives.
The bomb "permits us state security and at the same time the ability to battle against international terrorism in any situation, in any region," Russian Army chief General Alexandre Rushkin said.
The bomb, also known as a high-impulse thermobaric weapon, disperses a cloud of hydrocarbons. It explodes in a fraction of a second, setting the area on fire and emitting very strong heat.
This technology originated from the Vietnam war, where American soldiers called it "daisy clippers" because it was used to deforest jungles with devastating effect.
Rushkin likened the test results to the effects of a nuclear bomb.
Russian television showed a 30-metre (98-foot) four-storey building reduced to rubble after it was hit by one of these 7,100 kilogramme (16,000 pound) bombs.
No independent experts were interviewed regarding the still-unnamed bomb on Russian television and it is not possible to determine how new this bomb is or the veracity of the claims made by the Russian army.
The Russian defence ministry was unreachable by telephone on Tuesday evening.
The television programme insisted on the weapon's "conventional" character, and noted that Russia was not involved in a new arms race.
