Bombs Can't Bust Saddam Bunker, Builder Says

Yahoo News ^ | Fri Mar 28,10:49 AM ET | By David Crossland

[vannrox]

A radar-avoiding U.S. B-2 bomber dropped two earth-shattering 4,600-pound 'bunker-buster' bombs on Friday on a major link in Iraq's communications network in downtown Baghdad, defense officials said. It was believed to be the first use of the big bombs on Baghdad. Allied jets have pounded targets in the Iraqi capital with hundreds of bombs and missiles in the week-old war to depose President Saddam Hussein. (Reuters Graphic)

Bombs Can't Bust Saddam Bunker, Builder Says
Fri Mar 28,10:49 AM ET
By David Crossland

BERLIN (Reuters) - The German architect of one of Saddam Hussein (news - web sites)'s main bunkers in Baghdad said on Friday the Iraqi leader can survive anything short of a direct hit with a nuclear bomb if he stays within its four-feet-thick walls.

"It could withstand the shock wave of a nuclear bomb the size of the Hiroshima one detonating 250 meters away," said Karl Esser, a security consultant who designed the bunker underneath Saddam's main presidential palace in Baghdad.

U.S.-led troops will also find it hard to fight their way in through its three-ton Swiss-made doors, Esser told Reuters in an interview.

A retired Yugoslav army officer who helped build other bunkers for Saddam also told Reuters this week that the shelters were impenetrable and could survive an atomic bomb.

CNN reported on Friday that U.S. B-52 bombers dropped a two ton "bunker busting" bomb on the capital for the first time in the campaign.

The palace bunker can accommodate 50 people and has two escape tunnels, one leading 200 meters to the Tigris river.

It was built in 1982 and 1983 by German firm Boswau & Knauer, which merged into what is now the Walter-Bau AG building group.

At the time Esser was a consultant for a German government-sponsored civil protection body and had his own company, Schutzraumtechnik Esser GmbH, which supplied equipment for Saddam's bunker.

Whether Saddam is using the bunker or is even still alive is unclear, with London and Washington saying they were not convinced that television broadcasts he has made since the war started were live.

The U.S. and Britain launched the war on Iraq (news - web sites) last week with a bombing attack on Baghdad intended to target Saddam, and have pounded the city for nine days.

But Esser said "bunker busting" bombs like the one dropped on Friday would fail to penetrate the bunker because they first have to get though the palace built directly above it.

"The presidential palace above gives natural protection so the bunker can only be cracked by ground troops or a tactical nuclear bomb," said Esser.

The bunker ceiling itself, made of steel-reinforced concrete and up to two meters (yards) thick, was designed to withstand the direct impact of a 230 kg bomb, said Esser.

"It's not a combat bunker, it's an air raid shelter, otherwise it would have had to be built with gun slits and a variety of other features," said Esser.

"Ground troops could get in by taking out the doors with bazookas and explosives."

Construction took place at a time when western companies were legally supplying Saddam with arms and equipment during the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq war.

Esser said he assumes the plans of the bunker had been passed on to Germany's foreign intelligence service.

Esser remembers giving Saddam a personal tour of the bunker's features, which include a water tank, electricity generator, air filter, 30 square meter command center and so-called electromagnetic pulse protection system -- to shield electrical circuits from the impact of an explosion.

"He was satisfied," said Esser. "He was totally friendly. He was wearing civilian clothes and looked like an ordinary civil servant but you could tell he was important because everyone immediately went quiet when he started talking."

Esser said he had no qualms about having helped to protect a dictator likened to Hitler.

"It's not just one person getting protection, it's several people, it's the palace staff as well. I just see it as an achievement of bunker technology," said Esser.

[Churchillspirit]

Too technical for me, but I like your line of thought.

[GreyWolf]

Paging Vladimir Putin!

[Black Bart]

Looks like we are going to HAVE to go Nuclear to hit his bunkers.

Wouldn't it be simpler to bury Saddam in it?

[jerseygirl]

The builder has certainly given us a valuable clue ...we can't destroy the bunker "short of a direct hit with a nuclear bomb".

[error99]

"TITANIC UNSINKABLE !",- claims ship-builder...

[Banjoguy]

Cut off the air.....

[Cacique]

bump

[Teetop]

Too bad the moron didn't read up on bunker busting technology after his bunker was built.....

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.
http://www.fas.org/man/dod-101/sys/smart/gbu-28.htm

And if a GBU-28 doesn't do it, there is Big BLU now!

Although the Direct Strike Hard Target Weapon concept was unfunded as of 1997, in early 2002 it was reported that Northrop-Grumman and Lockheed Martin were working on a 30,000-lb. earth penetrating guided conventional weapon, said to be known as "Big BLU" or "Big Blue" [which is also the nickname of the 15,000-lb surface burst BLU-82]. Big BLU will be GPS guided and feature cobalt-alloy penetrator bomb body that enables it to penetrate to depths of up to 100 feet below the surface before detonating. The bombs are so large that a bomber such as the B-2 could carry one of them. As of March 2002 reportedly three Big BLUs had been ordered by the Air Force on an urgent basis ["Inside The Ring," By Bill Gertz and Rowan Scarborough, Washington Times March 15, 2002 Pg. 10].
http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/systems/munitions/dshtw.htm

And there is a B61-11 in testing as we speak. A nuke that has been tested in frozen earth penetrating up to 25 feet.

The most likely candidate is a tactical micro-nuke called the B61-11, an earth-penetrating nuclear device known as the "bunker buster."

The B61-11 was designed to destroy underground military facilities such as command bunkers, ballistic missile silos and facilities for producing and storing weapons.

However, it could be used against the warren of tunnels and caves carved under the Afghan mountains that are often cited as a potential refuge for the U.S. government's prime suspect, Osama bin Laden.

According to an article in the May 1997 edition of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists: "The B61-11's unique earth-penetrating characteristics and wide range of yields allow it to threaten otherwise indestructible targets from the air.
http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,1282,47319,00.html

[TaRaRaBoomDeAyGoreLostToday!]

This builder COULD have notified us sooner. Why would he choose now to let us know this?

Another Source for this article.

U.S. bombs can't bust Saddam's bunker, German builder says

[Becki]

The palace bunker can accommodate 50 people and has two escape tunnels, one leading 200 meters to the Tigris river.

Wasn't it the Tigris that the Iraqis were firing into last week? Perhaps an SF was locating the exit?

Becki

[TaRaRaBoomDeAyGoreLostToday!]

BumPing

[TaRaRaBoomDeAyGoreLostToday!]

Shhhh don't let Saddam know we put pirannah's and snakes alligators and sharks in the Tigris.

[MonroeDNA]

I believe our boys came up with an incredible device recently, for the Afghanistan war.

Basically, they took a hardened, very heavy, tank gun barrel, filled it with delayed explosives, put a guidance sytem and fins on it, and let it be dropped.

After a fall from 20,000 feet, this drill rod penetrates, well, anything. Waits a bit, then explodes.

It is heavy as hell, and dirt, concrete, and the death star all yeild.

They advertise 100 feet penetration. *snort!*

[TaRaRaBoomDeAyGoreLostToday!]

Geraldo would get a woody.

BTW:Why is Geraldo all of a sudden NOT embedded with the guys going after OBL, how did he get in Iraq. Was he afraid he would miss star status?

[TaRaRaBoomDeAyGoreLostToday!]

I hope our government knew about this before March 23rd (the day the article was printed.)

[TaRaRaBoomDeAyGoreLostToday!]

No, Jehovah's Witnesses'.

[MonroeDNA]

I humbly yeild to your knowledge.

Looks like he did get hit on the first strike, bunker or not!

[Riley]

Wasn't it the Tigris that the Iraqis were firing into last week? Perhaps an SF was locating the exit?

Good Lord, I hope not. I think though that if the Iraqis had found anything, it'd been all over Al Jazeera by now.

[MattAMiller]

Bunker busters aren't just big bombs. They're essentially big darts made out of very hard steel that slam into the ground at mach 4. Most of their weight is just digging power. No nuclear bombs necessary.

[Becki]

I think though that if the Iraqis had found anything, it'd been all over Al Jazeera by now.

Yes, it would. Also, I knew right away they did not down a plane, or they would have shown the requisite dance party in front of the wreckage.

Whatever (whoever) they were firing at, if anything, got away. They never did come up with anything.

Becki