US troops seize gang 'smuggling bombs from Iran' (so what are we waiting for?)

Breitbart.com ^ | Apr 27 02:52 PM US/Eastern | Breitbart.com

[Tulsa Ramjet]

US forces on Friday detained four members of a gang suspected of smuggling armour-piercing bombs from Iran to Iraq and sending back militants for "terrorist training", the military said. A statement from US command in Iraq said the suspects were picked up in an early morning raid on the east Baghdad suburb of Sadr City, a known stronghold of radical Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr's Mahdi Army militia.

"The individuals targeted during the raid are suspected members of a secret cell terrorist network known for facilitating the transport of weapons and explosively formed penetrators, or EFPs, from Iran to Iraq," it said.

The EFP is a form of roadside bomb in which the detonation of an explosive charge inside a steel tube causes a copper disk to deform into a fist-sized chunk of supersonic molten metal that can scythe through armoured vehicles.

American commanders say the design is exclusively Iranian and in January alleged that at least 170 US troops had been killed by EFPs since May 2004.

The statement also said that the gang had sent "militants from Iraq to Iran for terrorist training."

[Tulsa Ramjet]

Problem is, we continue to receive reports like this over and over again, our troops risk their lives to capture these iranian forces and.......we don't do anything about it except have a press conference, take post a few jpegs of he weapons, and then its off to hump another patrol. Something is broken here, or maybe we are just lacking the 'will' when it comes to Iran.

[AIM-54]

Yeah, no kidding. If we aren’t going to do anything about it, what’s the point?

[HoosierHawk]

We've been at war with Iran since 1979.

Let's get it over and done.

[Cicero]

General Pace and everyone else in the administration continually says that “there is no proof” that the Iranian GOVERNMENT is behind this. Maybe it’s rogue terrorists or independent factions. In other words, “We don’t want to know.”

Nonsense, of course, but they stick by it. I presume that Pace is only saying what he has been ordered to say.

[Army Air Corps]

The West lacks the will. Nothing will be done about Iran until they nuke someone.

[SandRat]

FR WAR NEWS!

WAR News at Home and Abroad You'll Hear Nowhere Else!

All the News the MSM refuses to use!

Or if they do report it, without the anti-War Agenda Spin!

[Go Gordon]

The West lacks the will. Nothing will be done about Iran until they nuke someone.

The Israeli's might have something to say about how Iran is handled.

[panzer_grey]

The EFP is a form of roadside bomb in which the detonation of an explosive charge inside a steel tube causes a copper disk to deform into a fist-sized chunk of supersonic molten metal that can scythe through armoured vehicles.

It is not "molten". If it were molten it could not penetrate steel, it would just splash like water. It does not "burn" its way through armor either. It travels at anywhere from 1km/s to 3km/s and it's force (remember F=MA) is such that it pushes its way through armor.

[wastedyears]

We should win one for the Gipper.

[Tulsa Ramjet]

I like this comment:

“...suspected members of a secret cell terrorist network,”

I guess it is improper to say “IRANIANS”. But that is a leeeeeeetle too brutally honest. AND...that means we would have to do ‘something’ about it. Like......have a press conference talking about it. Show our INDIGNATION through forceful verbal clarity. I’m sure our 170 dead soldiers are finally at peace knowing we have combatted the iranians with press conferences. I feel safe at night now. God bless America.

[Army Air Corps]

Maybe. I support Israel, but they still have to get to Iran. If they try to strike Iran by air, they have to get through unfriendly skies to get there. If they try a missile strike, then that is a whole other bag of worms. For one thing, a preemptive strike would be spun against Israel. The western media would claim that there was no reason to attack, Iran was “contained”, and all the other usual BS that the pro-terrorist media spews.

Remember, the enemies of Israel perceive the outcome of the 2006 war as a victory. The Islamic fascists are emboldened by what they see as a lack of resolve. I used to be more optimistic, but the words of the west have not matched actions. Frankly, even when Iran reveals to the world its first nuclear missile, the West will spin it as an expression of their right to defend themselves, etc. No one will do a damned thing until a lot of people are vapourised.

[Redbob]

The problem is, what do they do when they catch them?
Put them in a “prison” that’s closer to being the Hilton than anything these scum have lived in before?

What they should be doing is shooting them on the spot and sticking their heads up on posts as an object lesson to others.

[Kolb]

For everyone's reference: Shaped Charge Theory Hydrodynamic penetration is a complex mechanism which begins to appear when the strike velocity exceeds a critical value, typically about 1,150m/s for current penetrators against rolled homogenous armor (RHA) targets. Full hydrodynamic behavior does not occur until the strike velocity reaches several kilometers per second, such as occurs with shaped charge munitions. At strike velocities less than about 1,150m/s penetration of metal armor occurs mainly through the mechanism of plastic deformation. A typical penetrator achieves a strike velocity around 1,500m/s to 1,700m/s, depending on range, and therefore target effects generally exhibit both hydrodynamic behaviour and plastic deformation. A number of models of varying degrees of complexity have been developed to predict long rod penetrator performance. A common feature that emerges from these models is the importance of a high strike velocity to exploit more fully the hydrodynamic penetration mechanism, which, in turn, is further improved by the use of longer penetrators having higher densities relative to the target material density. This is amply supported by experimental work. Shaped charge is indeed an extraordinary phenomenon that is beyond the scale of normal physics, which explains why its fundamental theoretical mechanism is by no means fully understood. The shaped charge jet tip reaches 10 kms-l some 40 µs after detonation, giving a cone tip acceleration of about 25 million g. At this acceleration the tip would reach the speed of light, were this possible, in around 1.5 seconds. But of course, it reaches a terminal velocity after only 40 millionths of a second. It is difficult to think of any other terrestrial event as fast as a shaped charge jet tip. The jet tail has a velocity of 2-5 kms-l and so the jet stretches out to a length of about 8 cone diameters (CDs) before particulation occurs. The stretching occurs at a high strain rate, requiring the cone material to have excellent dynamic ductility at temperatures up to about 450°C. On reaching a target, the pressure developed between the jet tip and the forming crater can be as high as 10 Mbar (10 million atmospheres), several times the highest pressure predicted in the Earth's core. It is universally agreed that conical liner collapse and target penetration both occur by hydrodynamic flow. However, it has been established by X-ray diffraction that the jet is solid metal and not molten. Additionally, best estimates of jet temperature by incandescence colour suggest a mean value of about 450°C, and copper melts at 1083°C at atmospheric pressure. So the following conundrum is the first confusion: The jet appears to behave like a fluid, and yet it is known to be a solid. One recent theory that would help explain this is that the jet has a molten core but with a solid outer sheath. The hypervelocity hydrodynamic impact (unlike lower speed KE penetration) results in a mushroom head penetration, such that the hole diameter is larger than the penetrator diameter. The dynamic compressive yield stress of the target is exceeded by a factor of at least one thousand times, so that only the densities of the target and jet materials are important. Both materials flow as if they were fluids and the penetration event can be modelled quite accurately using the Bernoulli equation for incompressible flow to give the well known hydrodynamic penetration equation.

[Army Air Corps]

Damned right! Remind the primitives of the wages of their actions.

[jwh_Denver]

Hell, I’ll take just winning one.

[philly-d-kidder]

We monitor the situation Daily!... Iran has problems internally the Food Inflation is what will bring them down!

[Army Air Corps]

Sure, and the majority of Iranians want a change and have a warm spot in their heart for the US.

[gov_bean_ counter]

General Pace and everyone else in the administration continually says that “there is no proof” that the Iranian GOVERNMENT is behind this. Maybe it’s rogue terrorists or independent factions. In other words, “We don’t want to know.”

This one pi$$e$ me off royally because it is the same lily livered mush that is said about Iraq and support of Al Qaeda.

The countries are stink dictatorships. You don't take a leak in their country without the government knowing about it. If it is going on. The government is approving it.

[LouD]

Every time an EFP is used, we need to bomb a target in Iran - clandestinely.

Say nothing. Acknowledge nothing. Just destroy a military barracks, or an air base, or a Command and Control center, or the presidential palace. Make sure there are plenty of personnel killed or injured.

They will get the message.

[philly-d-kidder]

When they had a recent protest about the Brits embassy even Al Jazeera admitted that they could Garner no more than 100 people and the Government provided the signs and Rides by bus ... in a City of 5 Million thats prettty small support.