Posted on 12/31/2009 9:33:32 PM PST by ErnstStavroBlofeld
Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak said on Monday that Iran's recently diclosed second uranium enrichment plant is "immune" to conventional bombing. "The new site near Qom is meant for enrichment. What was revealed by the Iranians had been built over years and is located in bunkers that cannot be destroyed through a conventional attack," Barak told parliament's foreign affairs and defence committee.
Iran notified the UN nuclear watchdog in September that it was building a second enrichment plant near the central shrine city of Qom, after Washington accused it of covertly evading its notification responsibilities under the Non-Proliferation Treaty.
Confirmation of the construction work drew criticism not only from Western governments but also from the United Nations.
Enriched uranium can make the fuel for nuclear power plants but in highly extended form can also produce the fissile core of an atomic bomb.
Along with Western governments, Israel suspects Iran of seeking to develop a weapons capability under the guise of a civil nuclear programme, an accusation Tehran denies.
Along with its US ally, Israel, the region's sole if undeclared nuclear power, has refused to rule out a resort to military action to prevent Iran developing a bomb.
Barak said he feared Iran could develop a weapon by 2011.
"I believe that by early 2010 Iran will hold threshold technology (for building a bomb). That means that if it wanted, it could develop nuclear weapons within a year from obtaining threshold technology," a senior official quoted him as telling the parliamentary committee.
(Excerpt) Read more at spacewar.com ...
The space shuttle bay is 15’ x 60’. I’m not sure how many 59 foot long tungsten telephone poles can be moved into orbit at one time. We’d need to develop a GPS guidance package that would survive re-entry along with a rocket assist to get the rod from God started on the way to the target. It would beat the hell out of any bunker buster bomb. The nice thing is it’s not nuclear.
The new bunker busters are designed to be dropped seconds apart and have exceedingly accurate guidance so they can dig a hole as deep as it takes to do the job. These things are designed to be the equivelant of a straw in a tornado lodging iself into a tree. We know one blast alone will not do it, as they are telling us, but they need to beat their chests with this reality as fodder for their masses to fear them. Send five B-2’s on a mission all with the same corrdinates and show them it could be done and the regime folds like the cheap robe it is.
Half of the art of war is disinformation the other half is the execution of the loud part.
If youd like to be on or off, please FR mail me.
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That's it...What didn't get blowed up would be severely contaminated...
Which means a non conventional weapon is required. Gas, radiation or any other means to make the are uninhabitable.
That’s a decoy...
Then nuke it.
I’d bet it’s not immune to a 30 megaton blast or two.
While I’d not lose any sleep over Israel nuking Iran, I wonder if they’re planning a boots-on-the-ground operation, a la Entebbe? Israel has plenty of Iranian Jews (i.e., native Farsi speakers) and legendary intelligence capabilities.
The Israelis have been using public statements of this kind in an effort to minimize outside help to the Iranian regime as the people of Iran are in revolt. This will, I believe, only buy some time, although I hope it the revolt will lead to the overthrow of the mullahcracy.
I do not believe there is any hope that the various Arab states will align against Iran once it has the Bomb, nor do I believe that most Arab states are not currently working on their own nuclear weapons programs.
Probably the neo-Soviet regime in Russia, and the Chinese dictatorship is active in covert support for all the region’s nuke programs.
*ping*
*ping*
If an Israeli spy or commando could sneak inside with a very small nuke, they could make it look like a “work accident”. I’m sure that both they and the Iranians have thought of this already.
It provides plausible deniability and brings doubt upon the competence of the Iranians.
The biggest in inventory is 9 megatons and that is for the Titan II
I’ve little doubt if Israel decided to field a 30 megaton bomb, they’d have one ready to launch in a reasonable amount of time.
There’s one thing Israel has in abundance, brilliant minds who can be very focused on protecting their homes. Once the polidiots get out of the way, that is.
Doesn’t matter if the bunker is too far underground. All you need to do is seal it off from the surface.
So target all the tunnels into and out of it (including the air shafts).
Exactly!
Yes I've thought of that. 3 problems with that.
1. You have to know where those tunnels since we are likely talking about a large geographic area to deal with.
2. They would just build new tunnels.
3. You would never know what was accomplished or not accomplished unless you put boots on the ground.
I am not saying we should do nothing but I just don't think many in the "just lob some bombs" crowd have given this much serious thought. This job really requires nukes unfortunately.
Yes you can field it but how can you deliver it?
Unless it was made from exotic matter such as anti-matter.
Pure fission is limited to about 500kt (this is a rough figure, if anyone has any actual data, I would appreciate a link....), and as has been previously stated the Tsar Bomba was the largest fusion bomb ever detonated at around 57 mt. Of course, it was massive, took up the entire bomb bay of a heavy bomber and was deployed via drogue parachute much like one of the “daisy cutter” bombs. Chelomei actually designed the UR-500 (aka Proton) as a massive ICBM to loft it state-wards... never deployed, obviously.
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