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Iran nuclear sites may be beyond reach of "bunker busters"
Reuters ^ | Jan 12, 2012

Posted on 01/12/2012 8:43:55 PM PST by sukhoi-30mki

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To: sukhoi-30mki

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?


21 posted on 01/12/2012 9:24:45 PM PST by 43north (BHO: 50% black, 50% white, 100% RED)
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To: sukhoi-30mki

I don’t understand why is it necessary to destroy the bunker. Just destroy the entrances and it quickly becomes a tomb.


22 posted on 01/12/2012 9:26:52 PM PST by hiho hiho
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To: EERinOK

A Tomahawk a day keeps the rescuers away!


23 posted on 01/12/2012 9:35:47 PM PST by Pox (Good Night. I expect more respect tomorrow.)
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To: Old Sarge
Question. Do we really want to open that door?
24 posted on 01/12/2012 9:47:29 PM PST by ANGGAPO (Layte Gulf Beach Club)
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To: sukhoi-30mki

If Reuters’ anonymous defense experts say so, I guess it must be true. /s


25 posted on 01/12/2012 9:49:34 PM PST by expat1000
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To: Old Sarge

There ya go! My thoughts exactly.


26 posted on 01/12/2012 9:50:34 PM PST by FlingWingFlyer ("Climate Change" my a.... All weather is local.)
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To: sukhoi-30mki

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.”


27 posted on 01/12/2012 10:12:29 PM PST by JohnBovenmyer (Obama been Liberal. Hope Change!)
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To: sukhoi-30mki

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 won’t 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, it’s 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.


28 posted on 01/12/2012 10:12:55 PM PST by Bobalu (Newt is just the a-hole we need at a time like this)
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To: sukhoi-30mki

Drop Meghan McCain on the target and see what happens.


29 posted on 01/12/2012 10:20:51 PM PST by Kickass Conservative (Liberals, Useful Idiots Voting for Useless Idiots...)
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To: Allon
If you lined 3 or 4 of these in sequence, 30 seconds apart, wouldn’t that just keep digging the hole deeper until it was sufficient?

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.

30 posted on 01/12/2012 10:25:56 PM PST by PGR88
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To: sukhoi-30mki

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.


31 posted on 01/12/2012 11:38:29 PM PST by krogers58
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To: Old Sarge

I say we nuke the site from orbit. It’s the only way to be sure.


32 posted on 01/13/2012 12:29:36 AM PST by Secret Agent Man (I'd like to tell you, but then I'd have to kill you.)
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To: krogers58

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.


33 posted on 01/13/2012 12:42:31 AM PST by rmlew ("Mosques are our barracks, minarets our bayonets, domes our helmets, the believers our soldiers.")
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To: Pox

“A Tomahawk a day keeps the rescuers away!”

Why not just carpet bomb the area with frozen Pigs! Oh the dilemma that would cause!


34 posted on 01/13/2012 1:21:26 AM PST by vette6387 (Enough Already!)
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To: krogers58
"Paraphrasing what Patton said about fixed fortifications being monuments to man’s stupidity......."


35 posted on 01/13/2012 3:32:29 AM PST by SnuffaBolshevik (In a tornado, even turkeys can fly.)
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To: krogers58
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.

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.

36 posted on 01/13/2012 3:41:37 AM PST by tacticalogic ("Oh, bother!" said Pooh, as he chambered his last round.)
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To: Pox
Such bunkers have to have a way in and out...

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?

37 posted on 01/13/2012 4:49:15 AM PST by 2001convSVT (Going Galt as fast as I can.)
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To: Kickass Conservative
Drop Meghan McCain on the target

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.

38 posted on 01/13/2012 5:03:59 AM PST by ArrogantBustard (Western Civilization is Aborting, Buggering, and Contracepting itself out of existence.)
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To: krogers58

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...


39 posted on 01/13/2012 6:07:25 AM PST by BrewingFrog (I brew, therefore I am!)
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To: Kickass Conservative

That would be a war crime of epic proportions.


40 posted on 01/13/2012 6:19:13 AM PST by Tijeras_Slim
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