The MOAB that was dropped on Afghanistan costs far less than you think

A lot of misinformation has been circulated about the cost of the "mother of all bombs" that was dropped on a series of ISIS network tunnels in Afghanistan, but the true number is a lot less than many think.

Back in 2011, the LA Times wrote an article that detailed the cost of the bombs sitting somewhere in the range of $314 million.

This number was picked up by many in the media after teh Afghanistan MOAB was dropped, and soon the number was spread around social media.

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The figure LA Times presented, however, was not at all accurate, but soon the site Deagle.com came out with the figure $16 million. As the Daily Caller writes, this number was then picked up from various media outlets.

Many news organizations, including TIME and CNBC, also cited Deagel.com, a site with extensive lists of weapons assets owned by multiple countries, which claims the MOAB costs $16 million per unit, the same amount as the reported cost of the MOP.

It was Business Insider, however, that got to the bottom of the actual cost of the MOAB bomb. Going to the US Air Force itself, who made the bomb in-house, and not through a third party like Boeing or Lockheed.

The actual cost is $170,000.

The $170,000 figure makes sense considering a general-purpose 1,000-pound MK-83 costs about $12,000. The MOAB simply features more high explosives and larger fins to direct the GPS-guided munition.

So there you have it. The cost of the largest non-nuclear bomb in the United States' possession actually costs under $1 million to make.