Here is a towed gun firing.
As you can see, this is NOT a gun to fire from an aircraft.
Posted on 01/15/2006 7:15:47 PM PST by icwhatudo
Ever since a fellow freeper noticed that the photo of a supposed "missle" was actually a 155mm artillery shell, it appeared something was just not right. At the same time in the same province the Pakistani military was shelling a villiage.
Is it possible that allies in the war on terror are offering political cover for one another?
To see what a real missle looks like- In early December, another missle attack occured in Pakistan and remnants of that missle appear in this photo
So when did we start dropping 155mm shells from preditors?
It's a delicate balancing act in Pakistan.
A gunship?????
On another thread there was a knowledgeable analysis of the shell, pointing to its non-NATO origins, due especially to the single brass ring at the bottom; we apparently use two. Also, the rifling of the brass indicates it was fired. Some artillery knowledgeable Freepers disavowed it as ours.
I've searched hundreds of internet photos to track that round, and I can't find it. Our 155's regularly come up with the double brass rings, lots of English lettering, a somewhat different profile, etc.
The Pakis may have fired an indigenous shell. The shell may have been a leftover of the Soviets in Afghanistan. In any case, it ain't from a Predator. The photo is a dud artillery round fired through a tube, not an air launched missile.
It wasn't "dropped" from the Predator. Predators not carry 155mm cannons or haven't you heard? </extreme sarcasm>
Roger that. The Soviets used 152mm shells like that. I don't know if the Pakistanis shelled the village and blamed it on US, or if they had a smattering of old shells around in boobytraps as a defense against ground assualt, a common enough thing for guerillas or terrorists to do when they think someone is out to get them.
My understanding is that some 11 terrorists were waxed, but the primary one was running late, and the party started without him.
It was a dud Soviet 152mm artillery round.
Thats a good point. It could very well be that the shell was going to be used as an IED. The homes that were destroyed could have been a place where such things were made. Either way there is no way that pic is of a US missile.
We haven't.
Here is a towed gun firing.
As you can see, this is NOT a gun to fire from an aircraft.
"Blue" rounds are used for practice as opposed to war shots that are green or white (aircraft missiles).
Not only is that a 155mm Artillery round, it's one with a Yellow band and one that appears not to have had the shipping plug removed, but broken off, and shows no residue to reflect it was ever fired.
Yellow band means it's a smoke round. A smoke round is what we in the business call "base ejecting", which means the back (bottom) end comes out and smoke cannisters fall out of it. It's hard to tell from the camera angle, but this doesn't look like an expended smoke round, but, rather, an unfired one.
A shipping plug is screwed into the fuze well to serve as kind of an eye-bolt to assist in handling the round before it's prepared for firing. The shipping plug must be removed in order to attach a proper fuze to the round so that it functions properly (explodes or kicks out smoke cannisters, or whatever). This one looks like the eye-bolt part was cut off, but not unscrewed. The other possible explanation is that some extremely incompetent artilleryman fired this thing with the shipping plug instead of a fuze and the shipping plug broke on impact, but....
Further, it shows no signs of having been fired from a cannon using a propellant explosion sufficient to drive a 98 pound projectile up to 20 miles. Does anyone see anything that looks like this thing was millimeters away from a violent explosion? Not me.
I'm guessing this round was pulled from the local IED factory or training ground as a prop for the propaganda coming from the locals who were really supporting the terrorists who hosted the meeting Zawahri was late to.
That means that either the photo is staged (likely) or that somone who didn't know squat about ordinance fired it at the village or maybe the whole event was a big accident.
I'll bet that the round was a photo prop, too.
For the record, who was mistaken BTW. By definition, it was a missile
noun 1 an object which is forcibly propelled at a target. 2 a weapon that is self-propelled or directed by remote control, carrying conventional or nuclear explosive.
I don't think it floated there...
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