Posted on 04/12/2006 5:03:46 PM PDT by Aussie Dasher
Iran could build a nuclear weapon within "days" once it completes plans to beef up its uranium enrichment facility at Natanz, a State Department official said Wednesday.
"Natanz was constructed to house 50,000 centrifuges," Stephen Rademaker, U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for International Security and Nonproliferation, told reporters in Moscow. "Using those 50,000 centrifuges they could produce enough highly enriched uranium for a nuclear weapon in 16 days."
Earlier on Wednesday, Iran's deputy nuclear chief, Mohammad Saeedi, appeared on Iran's state-run TV network to announce plans for "industrial scale" uranium enrichment involving 54,000 centrifuges at the Natanz facility, according to the Associated Press.
Rademaker, whose stunning "nukes-in-days" prediction was first reported by Bloomberg News, offered his comments in reaction to Saeedi's announcement.
Iran's first successful attempt to enrich uranium, announced Tuesday by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, was accomplished with just 164 centrifuges. While it's not clear how quickly Iran could reach the 50,000 centrifuge mark, there are indications that the rogue nation is already much closer than indicated by Tuesday's announcement.
Last August, an exiled Iranian dissident who helped uncover nearly two decades of covert nuclear activity in 2002, told the Associated Press that Iran has already manufactured thousands of centrifuges capable of enriching uranium to weapons grade.
"4,000 centrifuge machines have not been declared to the IAEA," Alireza Jafarzadeh said. "And the regime has kept the production of these machines hidden from the inspectors while the negotiations with the European Union have been going on over the past 21 months."
In Feb. 2003, UN nuclear watchdog Mohamed ElBaradei visited Natanz. He reported that in a nearby building, workers were assembling parts for thousands of centrifuges.
The Natanz facility is buried 75 feet underground and has a reinforced concrete roof, according to GlobalSecurity.org.
Hitler's plan was to kill all of the Jews, just like the mullahs, imams (and whatever the hell else you want to call them) over there want to.
So, actually attacking them would be like going after a bunch of little Hitlers in turbins and dirty night shirts...
we need to kill the scientists not just destroy the physical program..we must destroy the knowledge
Assuming they have 5000 centrifuges they could have a uranium bomb every six months. Starting from when? 2002? That could be eight bombs already.
When Western civilization is threatened like this, we can't wait for our enemy to gain equal footing can we? We must strike but I am afraid we'll not strike hard enough and we'll simply create a bigger monster.
Iran will go first. Sneak attack like Pearl Harbor during negotiations. Then war will be demanded, and war it will be.
Unfortunately, we won the toss and have elected to receive.
We should have already taken action with at least a complete UN economic sanction plan.
But since China and Russia and the world oil market wouldn't let us, we are now stuck with all the other options (as limited as those may be.)
And just noting that Europe's plan of constructive engagement through the IAEA and diplomacy has totally failed as well.
Not many option left. One may be just dealing with the fact that Iran will soon be one of the nuclear powers. Can't be the best option available.
Even if they had 1000 nukes they couldn't be on equal footing. They can make a regional mess and they will lose every way possible. Regional would be from Egypt to India, which is a large region. The key is for Russia, China and the US to act more or less together or at least not oppose each other. If China takes advantage for their own territorial ambitions the world will be very different in the morning.
Well...Andrea Mitchell on MSNBC with Chris Matthews, was very positive about Condi Rice's chances of stopping any military action by the US. According to Mitchell, Condi has GW's ear, not like Powell, who was always the odd man out. No, Condi's powerful, she'll keep us from doing anything but talk, talk, talk while they work away at nukes. (Hard not to scream and throw something heavy at the TV.)
Your scale of ignorance is so massive I don't know why I am even replying.
As a matter of fact, Israel glared at the US and cleared her throat rather loudly today.
Heard this stupidity on MSNBC or maybe CNN...if we bombed Iran now, we'd be setting their nuke program back maybe two years, so what's the point.
The Guided Bomb Unit-28 (GBU-28) is a special weapon developed for penetrating hardened Iraqi command centers located deep underground. The GBU-28 is a 5,000-pound laser-guided conventional munition that uses a 4,400-pound penetrating warhead. The bombs are modified Army artillery tubes, weigh 4,637 pounds, and contain 630 pounds of high explosives. They are fitted with GBU-27 LGB kits, 14.5 inches in diameter and almost 19 feet long. The operator illuminates a target with a laser designator and then the munition guides to a spot of laser energy reflected from the target.
The GBU 28 "Bunker Buster" was put together in record time to support targeting of the Iraqi hardened command bunker by adapting existing materiel. The GBU-28 was not even in the early stages of research when Kuwait was invaded. The USAF asked industry for ideas in the week after combat operations started. Work on the bomb was conducted in research laboratories including the the Air Force Research Laboratory Munitions Directorate located at Eglin AFB, Florida and the Watervliet Armory in New York. The bomb was fabricated starting on 1 February, using surplus 8-inch artillery tubes as bomb casings because of their strength and weight. The official go-ahead for the project was issued on 14 February, and explosives for the initial units were hand-loaded by laboratory personnel into a bomb body that was partially buried upright in the ground. The first two units were delivered to the USAF on 16 and 17 February, and the first flight to test the guidance software and fin configuration was conducted on 20 February. These tests were successful and the program proceeded with a contract let on 22 February. A sled test on 26 February proved that the bomb could penetrate over 20 feet of concrete, while an earlier flight test had demonstrated the bomb's ability to penetrate more than 100 feet of earth. The first two operational bombs were delivered to the theater on 27 February.
The Air Force produced a limited quantity of the GBU-28 during Operation Desert Storm to attack multi-layered, hardened underground targets. Only two of these weapons were dropped in Desert Storm, both by F-111Fs. One weapon hit its precise aimpoint, and the onboard aircraft video recorder displayed an outpouring of smoke from an entrance way approximately 6 seconds after impact. After Operation Desert Storm, the Air Force incorporated some modifications, and further tested the munition. The Fy1997 budget request contained $18.4 million to procure 161 GBU-28 hard target penetrator bombs.
Specifications |
|
| Mission | Offensive counter air, close air support, interdiction |
| Targets | Fixed hard |
| Class | 4,000 lb. Penetrator, Blast/Fragmentation |
| Service | Air Force |
| Contractor | Lockheed (BLU-113/B), National Forge (BLU-113A/B), |
| Program status | Production |
| First capability | 1991 |
| Weight (lbs.) | 4,414 |
| Length (in.) | 153 |
| Diameter (in.) | 14.5 |
| Explosive | 6471bs. Tritonal |
| Fuze | FMU-143 Series |
| Stabilizer | Air Foil Group (Fins) |
| Guidance method | Laser (man-in-the-loop) |
| Range | Greater than 5 nautical miles |
| Development cost | Development cost is not applicable to this munition. |
| Production cost | $18.2 million |
| Total cost | $18.2 million |
| Acquisition unit cost | $145,600 |
| Production unit cost | $145,600 |
| Quantity | 125 plus additional production |
| Platforms | F-15E, F-111F |
I don't think they'd bluff about being almost ready to build a bomb. If they were going to bluff they'd either say they had no weapons program or that they'd already built a bomb and its attached to a missile that can be aimed anywhere from Rome to an Us army base in Iraq.
Bluffing about almost being there is just going to give us more reason to attack sooner.
Is Iammadjohn a poker player? If so he would know when not to bluff is when your opponent has a pat hand.
Because you must. Feminized males have to get last word just like a woman... either that or, like the mullahs in dirty nightshirts, you don't like Jews either...
LOL. That's it!! Let's bomb everybody we don't like. Wasn't that Hitler's plan also?
Now, that's hardly fair. We don't like the French, and we don't bomb them.
Actually, it's not a question of disliking people. It's a question of do you wait until Ahmadinejad has a nuclear missile and threatens Tel Aviv with it? Because then there will be a big old war, with lots of bombing.
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