"Mother of all bombs," dropped Thursday in Afghanistan likely was partly built at the McAlester Army Ammunition Plant

An inert Massive Ordnance Air Blast "MOAB" bomb is on display outside the headquarters of the McAlester Army Ammunition Plant in this photo from 2005. [Photo by Jim Beckel, The Oklahoman Archives]

The United States dropped the "the mother of all bombs" Thursday in Afghanistan, and it's likely that Oklahoma workers packed the explosives into the massive conventional weapon.

Its official name is the GBU-43/B Massive Ordnance Air Blast Bomb, and the 21,600-pound, 30-foot-long device is the most powerful non-nuclear, satellite-guided weapon in America's arsenal.

Tuesday's strike on a tunnel complex in Afghanistan's eastern Nangarhar province marked the first time the bomb had been used in combat, part of an effort to defeat ISIS in that country this year, according to a statement from U.S. Central Command.

"It is designed to have maximum effect against caves and tunnels, which were the target," Navy Captain Bill Salvin, spokesman for U.S. Forces-Afghanistan, said via email Thursday.