Posted on 12/10/2001 9:08:38 AM PST by dead
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States for the third time in the Afghan conflict has unleashed its most lethal ``daisy cutter'' bomb, aiming at caves where senior al Qaeda leaders, including possibly Osama bin Laden (news - web sites), were believed to be hiding out, the Pentagon (news - web sites) said on Monday.
The 15,000 pound bomb was dropped in the Tora Bora area at the weekend and fighting is still so intense in the region that the U.S. military has been unable to determine what damage was wreaked, Navy Rear Admiral John Stufflebeem told a news briefing.
``There is a psychological effect of having ammunition of 15,000 pounds of explosive capability that's brought into a very narrowly-defined area,'' said Stufflebeem, a senior official on the U.S. military's Joint Staff.
``This cave complex is literally on the sheer walls of a valley and there the reverberation effect that goes up in those caves should have some sort of negative effect,'' he said.
The bomb was dropped ``at a cave target ... it was believed that that's where some substantial al Qaeda forces would be, and possibly including senior leadership,'' he said, adding it was not known if those leaders might have included bin Laden.
Lets ask Geraldo to check it out for us.
Hmmm . . . I guess I would call it a positive effect. But we all know what he means.
"Initially the blast uses up all nearby O2 (oxygen), vaporizing or melting everything. When the atmospheric oxygen does finally rush back in (@15 min later) every organic compound ignites spontaneously creating another smaller explosion contained within the mushroom cloud. The ground blast pattern yielded resembles that of a daisy shaped cookie cutter."
"Everything within a ~600 yard radius, 1200 yard diameter, is incinerated; all protoplasm(the colorless liquid or colloidal contents of a living cell) within a 1 mile radius, 2 mile diameter, is essentially pulverized by the extreme overpressure, which requires that the bomb be dropped from a special operations C-130 Hercules from at least 6000 feet."
You really want to be a long ways off when one goes off. And definitely not in an enclosed area. Recommend distance in miles not feet.
One interesting thing is the daisy cutters were originally used to make instant LZs in Viet Nam. ...... So using one to clear the foilage from a cave entrance, trees, bushes and all the rest, so you could direct more accurate fire into the entrance makes a lot of sense.
But I still wouldn't want to be in the same canyon when it went off. Remember what happened to the US special OPs guys when a 2,000 pounder landed 100 yards away. Now extrapolate to 15,000 pounds and above ground.
snooker
That is a beautifully understated comment. Translation: "That bomb should have them wetting their pants."
Well, you're also talking about overpressure in a closed space. The concusive effects might also burst eardrums or even kill people outright, especially if the blast was close to a cave opening. We've heard some of these places have blast doors. Who knows? It should definitely have a psychological effect too.
Walt
During Desert Storm the Marine Corps dropped all 254 CBU-72s, primarily from A-6Es, against mine fields and personnel in trenches. Some secondary explosions were noted when it was used as a mine clearer; however, FAE was primarily useful as a psychological weapon. Second-generation FAE weapons were developed from the FAE I type devices (CBU-55/72) used in Vietnam.
MORE HERE
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They were faced with an enormous tangled berm of trees and logs, perhaps 30 feet high, 30 feet across, and 100 feet long. They shaped the C-4 into a long snake, and with a long rod, pushed it under the width of the berm. They set the detcord, and ran back to their bunker and waited for the boom.
He said, "think of the world ending, and that's about what it was like." An incredible noise, shaking, dust and debris drifting down from the ceiling, etc.
He had expected a two-lane wide breach in the berm, and a good-size crater, but when he emerged from the bunker, he had to blink a few times to take in the scene. The entire berm was gone, and splinters of what once were logs were still drifting down from the sky. An entire log was imbedded in the ground hundreds of feet away from the site. The oblong crater where the detonation had taken place looked like it had been swept and dusted out by little old ladies with brooms.
What's ironic is that C-4 is a waste product from dye manufacturing.
They weren't quite instant. The debris tended to form a large bank around the perimeter, and other aircraft generally had to blast hole in this barrier so troops could get in and out...
The "Classic" Bangalor!
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Chiefs gave the Raiders a good game!
Yeah... I think that a contained 15,000lb. explosive concussive wave would do a wee bit '0 damage to a cave complex...
Like blowing the lungs our of each resident of the complex and causing the assumption of room temperature by most.
> "Initially the blast uses up all nearby O2 (oxygen), vaporizing or melting everything. When the atmospheric oxygen does finally rush back in (@15 min later) every organic compound ignites spontaneously creating another smaller explosion contained within the mushroom cloud. The ground blast pattern yielded resembles that of a daisy shaped cookie cutter."
Is that 15 minutes or 15 seconds? 15 minutes seems a long time...
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