No need for a bunker buster.
Posted on 09/13/2017 8:18:16 PM PDT by sukhoi-30mki
Looks like a dud, just stuck in the roof./s
Of course the target is smaller than the fatboy so a noogie hit is possible.
Greg Gutfeld called him the dictator-tot.
I prefer juche-fruit.
Sned over a couple of our smart bombs.
Good eye.
It’s a still-frame from a very high-speed video camera. Of course it was still putting out thrust at that split-second. An instant later, nothing but little pieces left.
"The missile was fired without an explosive device for safety reasons."
Get the Sorks to take him out?
Yes, these tests are performed with dummy warheads. In the video, the missile zips right through that target and burrows clear out of sight in a flash. It’s like those US Naval cruise missile tests, fired at cargo container targets on a towed barge. At normal video speed, a big hole just appears in the steel Conex box. Slow down the target camera playback and you can see the missile strike.
Strategically, this test and photograph poses a potentially new tactical problem for North Korea as they have been installing cruise missile barriers in anticipation of the typical cruise missile attacks to open targets - as observed by some typical U.S. Tomahawk Strikes. This vertical attitude (strike/photo) reveals that North Korea must anticipate all angles of attack (horizontal to vertical). IF they hadn't considered this, someone may be scrambling.
Was posting during your post. Thanks for the information.
Hey North Korea... There’s a hole in your Kim!
North Korea building walls in preparation for cruise missile attack
-- clips:
"Specifically, North Korea’s military is said to be replacing gallery strongholds made of stone, due to their propensity to break into pieces when struck by missiles, resulting in additional casualties. Instead, they will be rebuilt with gunnysacks—burlap sacks filled with earth or sand."
. . .
“North Korea seems to be very aware of the U.S. attack on Syria, it quoted Jiro Ishimaru, editor for North Korean magazine Rimjingang as saying, according to South Korea’s Yonhap News Agency. He added that North Korea was making "preparations against cruise missiles.”
- - end clips
It doesn’t need an explosive charge to end up in pieces. Kinetic energy alone would do the job, plus any remaining fuel. (The engine IS still on at the instant of impact.)
A bunker busting bomb* would stay largely intact at impact, but I believe the back end of a conventional cruise missile travelling at 700+ mph would “crumple” or break up as impact occurred, if that impact is sudden enough to stop the missile abruptly. Someone correct me if I am wrong.
*(Bunker busters are essentially long, relatively small diameter tubes made of dense, rigid material, with depleted uranium being best.)
Anyway, the video at the article link lays any doubt in this case to rest. :-)
Those had better be (for the Nork soldiers’ sake) pretty thick walls. We now have a variety of weapons, including specialized cruise missiles, that can penetrate a long way into soil or sand.
There is also the old (WW2) British concept of, instead of penetrating the target, penetrate deeply just to the side of it, blasting a void into which the target collapses.
Web searches will turn up plenty of reading material. :-)
It's a throwback to the Cold War, when it was feared that planning for a nuclear strike might suggest the US was preparing to launch one itself and expected a response.
I wonder how many U.S. states have this sort of policy?
I am familiar with the sophisticated targeting systems on current advanced cruise missiles. The earliest version of the prototypes that led to the Tomahawk used computer systems from a division where I worked along with the engineers that designed it.
Having access to the dense shrapnel metal & have performed residual radiation tests to analyze the compounds used. Depleted Uranium (DU) has an alpha particle signature - to which identification of the use of what type(s) of warhead metals are revealed.
I am also aware of the penetrating sophistication of advanced cruise missiles. They have abilities that you touch upon - but I will stop at that.
The main point of bringing up the tactical missile mitigation issue by North Korea (in seeking to mitigate a cruise missile threat by building "walls") gives insight into their current state of protection "thinking" and their reported selected "next steps" to try to improve this protection.
The first key revelation is that they had dangerous "stone" walls that had to be dismantled as they figured out (recently) that rock proliferates the shrapnel scatter envelope from a "detonation shock wave".
The second key revelation is that "walls" were specifically ordered to be built in their upgrade away from "stone" to using sand or earth filled sacks.
For those "in the know" about what they could face (attack), NKorea is revealing their naivete* - will leave it at that.
*Given their sudden "stone" wall replacement effort (with the well known shrapnel scatter envelope of the rock), with another effort that is slightly improved but still falls short, the public image of this vertical strike landing trajectory missile, when applied to the demonstrated naivete of the first two revelations, likely will cause yet another round of concerns for North Korea that their tactical approaches are not well thought through.
Thus there is a potential psychological effect in the ramifications of leaders making poor decisions - besides the effect on the leaders when they discover they fell short in their mitigation efforts.
This was the main issue (vertical hit) that caught my attention on the photograph (all of the above) - that North Korea may be scrambling yet again because of yet another mis-calculation.
Thus this has a positive effect for South Korea in revealing this testing (and photo/videos) due to NKorea's prior mitigation tactical thinking (less than stellar).
Well they do know how to make great cars. Fat Boy should be worried.
No need for a bunker buster.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.