A bomb to bust the deepest bunkers

Eurekalert | New Scientist ^ | 7/13/05 | David Hambling

[LibWhacker]

Cool!

(Yes, I despise the media's obsession with taking gratuitous shots at George Bush every time one of the losers writes a story.)

[Night Hides Not]

Let's call it the "Helen Thomas."

[samadams2000]

I still want to know why we havent used any of the MOABs. Why build them if we arent gonna have some fun with them?

[IllumiNaughtyByNature]

That is hilarious!

[frogjerk]

Let's call it the "Helen Thomas."

Not a good choice. That would make it ugly and ineffective...

Then again, that face could stop a WMD.

[frogjerk]

But supercavitation may not be limited to liquids

[konaice]

The Russians have had such a torpedo since the 1990s: called Shkval, it can travel at 360 kilometres per hour.

And by all accounts, destroys the submarine trying to fire it.

This would seem to be a rather tricky weapon to use, because something traveling that fast can't turn very fast.

[Restorer]

DESPITE the intelligence failure that led the Bush administration to believe Iraq had weapons of mass destruction, the Pentagon is pressing ahead with the development of technologies designed to destroy WMDs.

Let me get this straight.

We haven't found any WMDs in Iraq, therefore we will never have any need for a way to destroy them, in Iraq or anywhere else.

Does not compute.

[konaice]

The Russians have had such a torpedo since the 1990s: called Shkval, it can travel at 360 kilometres per hour.

We used them in Afganistan. They are unsuitable for use in urban invironments, which is where most of the Iraq battles took/take place.

[Night Hides Not]

You may be right, but I've always thought she creates a supercavity!

[konaice]

Oopw, a cut an past error in #9 above, I was refering to Moabs.

[Yasotay]

It seems that the German Bunker Building Engineers beat our Bunker Buster Development Engineers in the Battle of Saddam's bunkers. I hope we learned the right lessons (whatever they are) and win the next round.

[Eric in the Ozarks]

This is called "desperate for a sneering lead line" in J-school.

[andyk]

We haven't found any WMDs in Iraq, therefore we will never have any need for a way to destroy them

I think you've pretty much got it. Not only that, but it's also apparently clear that there was an intelligence failure because no WMDs have been found in Iraq.

[SFC Chromey]

If youv'e seen the bunkers that I've seen, we won that battle. Maybe the bunkers you are talking about are the 'undisclosed locations' that they are keeping Sadaam in.

[Restorer]

I'm sure you're right. I just fail to see how the failure to find WMDs in Iraq has any connection to the story.

[Yo-Yo]

The supercavitating torpedo continuously injects a gas from the cavitating nose. How does one do that for dirt?

[in hoc signo vinces]

MOAB is a massive fuel air bomb...devastating to surface targets or large formation of troops but not so affective against hardened underground targets.

[jwh_Denver]

10 times the depth? I don't buy it. Maybe if they dropped a regular bunker buster just ahead of this new one to create less "hardpack" maybe. Or just drop one regular one after another one. Just guessing.

[LibWhacker]

At high enough velocity a blunt-nosed body will force apart any medium it travels through, whether it be water, soil or concrete.

I'm skeptical, too, that's for sure. :-)

But the principle makes intuitive sense and sounds like it might actually work. The future's gonna be an amazing place!