Posted on 11/06/2001 4:40:52 PM PST by Pokey78
AMERICA has stepped up the pressure on the Taliban using bombs with the same destructive force as a small thermo-nuclear device.
The 15,000lb BLU-82, or Daisy-Cutter high-blast bomb, the world's largest conventional device, was developed during the Vietnam War. The Americans are thought to have used only one of the devices so far against the Taliban.
It is so large that it is normally dropped from a C130 transport aircraft. A 4ft-long detonation rod, which emerges from the 17ft-long bomb after it is dropped, releases a cloud of inflammable ammonium nitrate, aluminium dust and polystyrene slurry.
This is then ignited by a second detonator, scorching the surrounding area, consuming oxygen and creating a shock wave and vacuum pressure that destroys the internal organs of anyone within range. The bomb has the ability to clear a three-mile path through a minefield.
Like the B52 bombers dropping "long sticks" of bombs, commonly described as carpet bombing, the Daisy Cutter was used to great effect against Iraq's Republican Guard during the Gulf war.
During the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan, the Russians developed a hand-held launcher to fire similar bombs into the caves of the Mujahideen, who called it the "Satan Stick".
Its use against the Taliban frontlines coincides with an escalation of attacks on the caves and tunnels where Osama bin Laden and his terrorist colleagues are thought to hide.
The increased number of special forces on the ground has provided better intelligence allowing the US aircraft to attack the caves, Donald Rumsfeld, US defence secretary, said on his way back from a visit to the region.
Russia has also provided intelligence on the caves that were used by the Afghan forces and the mujahideen during the Soviet occupation, defence officials said.
The bombing also includes the use of the 5,000lb GBU-28 "Deep Throat" bunker-buster which burrows down through as much as 20ft of rock before exploding inside the cave. Its "smart" fuse can tell the difference between rock, concrete, earth and air.
"We attacked while the Americans were bombing," said Ashraf Nadeem, a spokesman. "It was not only us who killed. It was mostly the Americans."
He said 200 Taliban fighters died. Despite the claims, the Alliance has yet to make a significant advance on the strategic city of Mazar-i-Sharif.
And this one has real live targets to chase. Our guys can get some "for real" training time in!
Specifications |
|
| Class | 15,000 lb. Blast/Fragmentation |
| Guidance | Ballistic |
| Control: | |
| Autopilot: | None |
| Propulsion: | None |
| Weight (lb.) | 15,000 |
| Length (in) | 141.6 |
| Diameter (in) | 54 |
| Warhead (lbs.) | 15,000 |
| Explosive | Aluminum Powder (12,600 lbs.) |
| Fuze | M904 (Nose); M905 (Tail) |
| Unit Cost | $27,318 |
| Aircraft | MC-130 |
Well, then, maybe we should...
when all the camel-jockey terrorists are dead...
FReegards,
Hmmmm?? Maybe that's why a C-130 group has left the Philippines for an undisclosed location??
can you draw a picture of a hand-held device that shoots a 15 ton bomb into a cave?
Think of BLU-82 as a conventional bomb on steroids.
They sure do, Fox news has been showing a film of a fuel air bomb all afternoon and calling it a daisy cutter. This report mixes the two. The daisy cutter explodes when it's 38" fuse hits the ground.
The fuel air bomb explodes in the air spreading fuel then explodes the fuel air vapors, like shown in the tapes you've seen.
Daisy cutters only explode once, they don't release a cloud of inflammable ammonium nitrate, aluminium dust and polystyrene slurry. BTW that mix is flammable.
If I remember correctly, a small tactical nuke is a 1 kiloton (TNT equivalent) weapon. That's 2,000,000 lbs of conventional explosive. I don't see how a 15,000-lb weapon can be compared to this. It seems to me that between 100 and 200 of the daisy cutters would be required to equal a tactical nuke.
(A medium-sized thermonuclear bomb would be a megaton, i.e., 1000 times as big as a small tactical nuke. A large weapon would be 10 megatons, or 10,000 times as big as the one-kiloton weapon. If my reasoning is correct, a large hydrogen bomb would be a million daisy cutters.)
Are there any munitions experts on FR who could shed more light on this?
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