Russia's military has successfully tested what it described as the world's most powerful non-nuclear air-delivered bomb, Russia's state television reported, the latest show of the nation's military muscle amid chilly relations with the United States.
The bomb explodes in an intense fireball combined with a devastating blast. It explodes in a nuclear bomb-like mushroom cloud and creates a massive shockwave.
Russian television said the new ordnance is four times more powerful than the US equivalent.
"The tests have shown that the new air-delivered ordnance is comparable to a nuclear weapon in its efficiency and capability," Colonel Alexander Rukshin, a deputy chief of the Russian military's General Staff, said in televised remarks.
Unlike a nuclear weapon, the bomb does not pose an environmental threat from the release of radiation, he added.
The statement reflected the Kremlin's efforts to restore Russia's global clout and rebuild the nation's military might.
The muscle-flexing comes at a time when ties with Washington have become strained over US criticism of Russia's backsliding on democracy, Moscow's vociferous protests against US missile defence plans and rifts over global crises.