WARPLANES: The Avalanche Weapon

Strategypage.com ^ | March 22, 2002 | Stephen V. Cole

[John H K]

US strike planners used a new tactic in the Afghan War: deliberately triggered avalanches. By having geologists study the terrain through recon photos, they could pick out areas that were "rockslides waiting to happen". If Taliban or al Qaeda troops were downhill from these areas, bombs were targeted to hit the mountainsides to trigger huge waves of crushed rock. Doing this provided surprise, as the targeted troops did not realize they were under attack when bombs landed a mile or two away from them. In one case, a large concentration of troops in a forested area could not be accurately targeted with bombs, but sending thousands of tons of rock into the forest destroyed the unit.

[Poohbah]

Good things that Graves & Burial ain't unionized.

"No prob with youse guys bombing the little so-and-sos, but this burying them at the same time stuff? That's a major contract violation, we're gonna havta go to the local's Grievance Committee, per Section 12, Paragraph 3, we'll send the formal complaint via certified mail. In the meantime, as shop steward, I must formally request that youse cease and desist from further actions of this type. Youse guys have a nice day."

[hchutch]

Victory through air power!

[Thud]

Surprise is unnecessary when you can hit them with thousands of tons of rock.

[Poohbah]

To heck with finesse...sometimes a size 12 boondocker to the crotch is the most effective tactic...

[dglang]

no wonder they're having trouble counting them all. We buried them under rock slides as well as in the caves. During the Gulf war invasion of Iraq, it was estimated that we buried over 100,000 of them alive when our tanks entered the country. The Iraqi's were hiding in trenches dug in the sand and the vibrations of our tanks caused the trenches to cave in. Some of our tanks had plows attached to the front of then to cut through the sand barriers that were constructed to keep invaders out.

[Blood of Tyrants]

Excellent tactic. Use the mountains they hide in as a weapon against them.

[stboz]

OK, so it was a mustard seed the size of a big-ass 2,000 lb bomb. But the mountain did move.

Imagine what a micro-nuke on the order of 1kt would do!!!

[stboz]

Victory through air power!

Major Seversky would be proud. I have the book, with preface by General William Mitchell.

[LouD]

YAHOOO! Get some, zoomies!

[hchutch]

I've read John Warden's book. His theories are probably the best way for air power to reach the point where it will win a war on its own.

[Fish out of Water]

index bump

[greydog]

If memory serves me, this tactic was used in WWII in snow-coverd mountain areas.

[Poohbah]

I've read Horner's book. He lays out a pretty devastating critique of Warden's concepts in many "early intervention" ops.

[aShepard]

Use the mountains they hide in as a weapon against them

Now to finish off the job, send in the helocopters with lots of hungary pigs and wild boars, and let them feed on the rotting remains of these bas**rds!

[Redcloak]

Some rockslides have an interesting property. "Long run out" slides can move long distances across horizontal ground. They don't just pile up at the base of the mountain. They continue to run horizontally like a wave of water. Trigging one of these could nail an Al Qaeda unit even though it's no where near the base of the slide.

[MissAmericanPie]

ROFLOL

[RightWhale]

Well done.