Posted on 01/12/2012 8:43:55 PM PST by sukhoi-30mki
Iran nuclear sites may be beyond reach of "bunker busters"
(Reuters) - With its nuclear program beset as never before by sanctions, sabotage and assassination, Iran must now make a new addition to its list of concerns: One of the biggest conventional bombs ever built.
Boeing's 30,000-pound Massive Ordnance Penetrator (MOP), an ultra-large bunker buster for use on underground targets, with Iran routinely mentioned as its most likely intended destination, is a key element in the implicit U.S. threat to use force as a last report against Iran's nuclear ambitions.
The behemoth, carrying more than 5,300 pounds of explosive, was delivered with minimal fanfare to Whiteman U.S. Air Force Base, Missouri in September. It is designed for delivery by B-2 Stealth bombers.
Would that weapon, delivered in a gouging combination with other precision-guided munitions, pulverize enough rock to reach down and destroy the uranium enrichment chamber sunk deep in a mountain at Fordow, Iran's best sheltered nuclear site?
While the chances of such a strike succeeding are slim, they are not so slim as to enable Tehran to rule out the possibility of one being attempted, according to defense experts contacted by Reuters.
A "second best" result might be merely to block the plant's surface entrances, securing its temporary closure, some said.
One U.S. official, speaking to Reuters on condition of anonymity, described an attack on the underground site, about 160 km (100 miles) south of Tehran near the Iranian holy city of Qom, as "hard but not impossible."
The United States is the only country with any chance of damaging the Fordow chamber using just conventional air power, most experts say.
Israel, the nation seen as most likely to attempt a raid, has great experience in long range bombing include its 1981 raid on the Osirak nuclear
(Excerpt) Read more at reuters.com ...
I propose that we send some of the “best” reporters from CNN, AP, Reuters, NYT, etc. into a mockup of that bunker and deeply penetrate it with one of those poppers and see what they think after that. Any takers?
I don’t understand why is it necessary to destroy the bunker. Just destroy the entrances and it quickly becomes a tomb.
A Tomahawk a day keeps the rescuers away!
If Reuters’ anonymous defense experts say so, I guess it must be true. /s
There ya go! My thoughts exactly.
Do what their sort likes to do. Throw rocks. But do it the American way, as envisioned by a retired naval officer, Robert Heinlein in “The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress.”
I have posted about it before...Israel can handle Iran all by itself. But it would be better and cost less Iranian lives if the USA was backing Israel up. That wont be happening with Zero at the helm.
With US help the inevitable crushing of Iran would be a strictly conventional affair. Israel on its own will be forced to use neutron weapons to control the Iranian nuclear sites.
There will be no images of destroyed cities and no fallout spreading across the globe. But still it will be a shock for the world to awaken one day soon and realize that a type of nuclear device has been used.
We better hope the war can be contained once neutron weapons are used on the battlefield, its definitely coming because Israel WILL be forced to attack Iran alone because we were stupid enough to elect the Won. There is only 0.00 chance that Israel will not be forced into this horrific mess. The Iranian nukes must be destroyed.
Bunker busters, even nuclear ones cannot be relied upon to destroy the sites. Nuclear bunker busters are not so powerful that just dropping one in close to a fortified site will destroy it. This would mean that a large number would need to be used since the exact layout of underground complexes is probably not known. This would result is lots of fallout because the blasts could not be completely contained.
Best to rely on small neutron weapons to clear a large radius around the sites and then have ground teams destroy the sites at their leisure. Once the ground team has a fortified position where they are shielded from neutron bombardment then neutron weapons can be used repeatedly to clear the area until the work is done.
Drop Meghan McCain on the target and see what happens.
That's what I thought. Keep it up for a few days. If nothing else, it would bury their plant under a mound a rubble that would need months to excavate.
I would expect that we have a fairly advanced kinetic energy weapons program. It has a folklore on the internet where the program is called “Project Thor” or “Rods from God”. Essentially it operates on the concept of firing needle shaped spears, made of hardened tungsten. These spears would be akin to the size of a large telephone pole, or larger. The idea is to fire these “spears” at velocities approaching those of comets or meteors, such that they impact on the surface of the earth at upwards of 10 miles per SECOND. One only needs to run a calculation of 2000 lbs moving at that speed to realize that they would strike with the force of a nuke, without any fallout. I can’t even imagine how far they would penetrate, but I’d expect you could send several at the same target, and do some real excavating. Also, given that they are hitting with the force of a nuke, that is concentrated on a single point, there potential penetration depth would far exceed anything in our bunker buster weapons. I’d sure hate to be down in that bunker. At the impact speed, I doubt there is any defense for such a weapon, and that though we might not have them orbiting in space at present, a ballistic missile could be constructed in such a way as to do the job.
I do believe the pentagon spent quite a bit of money recently on developing a conventional trident missile for the Ohio class subs. I wonder why they would spend nearly a billion dollars developing what is termed as a “conventional” weapon. Given that the trident missile is an already completed program to launch nuclear warheads, I’d suspect that the development costs were probably on the warhead design of this new “conventional” missile. If we haven’t done this, our military are bigger fools than I gave them credit for.
Paraphrasing what Patton said about fixed fortifications being monuments to man’s stupidity, I’d say our engineers have long ago figured out how to take out such bunkers.
I say we nuke the site from orbit. It’s the only way to be sure.
While not as effective, a 1 ton solid tungsten or DE warhead on a ICBM would land with the force of 0.075 kilotons of TNT.
“A Tomahawk a day keeps the rescuers away!”
Why not just carpet bomb the area with frozen Pigs! Oh the dilemma that would cause!
I wouldn't be surprised to find out Obama told them he would never authorize the use of nuclear weapons for any reason, and they had to come up with something else.
Well put! If all access was destroyed how long would it take to remove several hundred feet (if not a thousand) of rubble? And how long before the air and water are used up?
Brilliant!
If you want to trigger a Mag 9+ earthquake ...
Seriously, though, folks should remember a few things.
1) This article is based on supposed "defense experts" babbling to RotoReuters.
2) The real defense experts (that is, the guys who plan these strikes for a living) are not a bunch of leftist Hussein-worshiping idiots.
3) They don't blab to RotoReuters.
Such a weapon would impact at beyond orbital speed. Much of its mass would be converted to heat upon impact, thus vaporizing the rock, rod and just about everything else nearby. That massive energy spike would also pulverize the underlying bedrock to a sufficient depth, even with a smaller rod, to annihilate a hardened bunker.
If not, as one poster suggested, hit it again. And again.
Orbital weapons. Ya gotta love ‘em...
That would be a war crime of epic proportions.
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