Posted on 09/16/2005 1:15:27 PM PDT by John Jorsett
One of the strangest, and most useful, bombs employed in Iraq has been the concrete filled smart bomb (laser guided or JDAM). Why deliver a 500 pound bomb filled with concrete instead of explosives? You do that if you want to do some damage, but not a lot. Concrete JDAMs were first used in the 1990s to destroy anti-aircraft guns, radars and missiles that Saddam Hussein placed in residential areas. He believed that the Americans would not attack these weapons, for fear of hurting nearby civilians. But it turned out that a laser, or satellite (JDAM) guided concrete smart bomb could take out the air-defense weapons without hurting nearby civilians. The concrete bombs come in various sizes (500, 1,000 and 2,000 pounds), but the new 500 pound JDAM has become a favorite when a concrete version is required. Recently, for example, two small bridges near the Syrian border were seen being used by terrorists to bring in people and weapons. There was no need to completely destroy the bridges (which might take months, or longer, to replace), because the terrorists were slowly being chased from the area. But a concrete bomb on each bridge damaged the structures enough so that they could not be used, but not so much that they could not be repaired in a week or two. Concrete bombs are still used against terrorist targets in residential areas, where the bomb can reach the terrorists before police or ground troops can. Its all a case of a seemingly off-the-wall weapon idea being, not a joke, but actually quite useful.
We can split the atom and we are reduced to throwing rocks!
All joking aside, the concrete bombs are very useful and were widely used during the active war stage in attacking tanks and other heavy equipment like AAA guns.
Fill A 2000lb JDAM with water. :D
IDEA!-- How bout a 500 lb pig blood bomb?
GPS and laser targeting make these useful. Precision!
how about 500 lbs. of pig manure.
quick...somebody get the GPS location for that silly bus the Hate America Sheehan Tour is driving and when they leave the bus to pick up the cash they are stealing from the Katrina victims.....bombs away.
or bacon grease.
Seems to me this method was first employed with iron bombs in NAM. More then one pilot had complained years back they could not understand why they where to drop bombs full of conctrete rather then live ordnance. At any rate, makes sense in cases given.
Jimmy Dean bombs. Pork grenades.
Isn't this good for danger close CAS ?
Is that Union mob concrete? /sarcasm
A five hundred pound cinder block traveling at the speed of sound is a frightful thing indeed!!
Yo! Duck!
During the siege of Fallujah, I suggested that the Marines get Jimmy Dean sausages..flash-freeze them...and launch them via mortar tubes..
in other words,they are using ted kennedy's head????
Falling rocks build up more downward momentum than falling atoms. And the split ones tend to drift off course.
I kinda like the idea of Michael Moore screaming out of the sky at about 3 times the speed of sound.
Yes, but they really big and accurate rocks :)
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