MOAB - Son of Daisy Cutter

StrategyPage.com ^ | 27 Feb 03 | StrategyPage.com

[Reverend Bob]

The Moab peaceniks will be in any event, though I haven't seen it mentioned yet in their local paper. On a hopeful note, last weeks TIMES-INDEPENDENT saw pro-Bush, pro-military letters to the editor out numbering those from useful idiots by a margin of three to one. A nice change from what it's been since last fall. Amazing how much noise a relatively small number of people can make.

BTW, the libs in Moab are disconcerted by many things just now. They lost all three Commissioners races in the last election and are (shudder) suddenly threatened with new roads and increased development. Now if they can just do something about that lefty City government.

[Utah Girl]

The Moab mayor is whining in this SL Trib article, big time about the Air Force naming this bomb MOAB. (I love the area around Moab.) Weapon's Name Bombs in Utah City

[Hebrews 11:6]

Now we just need to convert a few 747's that can carry about TEN of the suckers at a time and do a big line drop over troops and tanks.

But-but-but----don't we need France's permission first? And what about an Environmental Impact Report, huh? And what about those human shields--don't they have moms and pets and stuff? And what would Sean Penn say..........

[Reverend Bob]

Thanks for the link. Sakrison oversees a very liberal "city" government (only about half of Moab is actually within the city limits). His City Manager even signed the "Not In Our Name" petition last fall. Langianese is one of the old County Council holdovers (only 3 of 7 were up in the last election) and is now voting in the minority.

As to Moab's name: No one is really sure of it's true historic derivation. I still think it was the result of someone with a wicked sense of humor.

"Let's call it Moab, it's Biblical!"

"Uh, OK"

Later, when they figured out that Moab was the illegitimate son of Lot and one of his daughters, and the patriarch of a race that were perpetual enemies of the Israelites, some killjoy tried to change the name. Luckily, by then, inertia had set in and the name stuck.

Personally I quite like the place and spent ten days there earlier this month. I was psyched to freep an anti-war rally while I was there, but I couldn't find one, so I went hiking and rock climbing instead. The town's biggest weakness is that it's two bookstores are both HARD left. You can get THE NATION and MOTHER JONES, but not NR and THE WEEKLY STANDARD.

[jwh_Denver]

If things turn into combat in cities for Baghdad, this one would change their minds in a real hurry.

It won't happen in Baghdad. I read yesterday the planes will have real time video cameras on board to show that they are hitting military targets and not civilians. If they are used it will be against strictly military targets and possibly as "scare the s**t" out of the Iraqi troops. Which going by Persian Gulf war won't take much. Let's see how many surrender to drones.

[Aaron_A]

And surely a lot of Schwinn owners...

[polemikos]

Images of the New MOAB Weapon from: StrategyPage.com

[thegreatbeast]

This and the EMP weapons and other things should be used heavily and right away to dissuade Saddam from thinking that we are going to play by the Queensbury Rules. Lately I have been fearful that Hussein has decided to drink the hemlock and adhere to a scorched earth policy. It is important that we create new nightmare imagery for the bastard. Make a god-fearing man out of him as it were.
We are really hanging out there now. We have to be breathtakingly scary. Anything less will invite a world (literally) of hurt.

[Irishguy]

jeeze, i am thousands of miles away -- and it scares the bejesus out of me....

[Semper Paratus]

I'll pay good money for the video of one them hitting a "Presidential Palace".

[enraged]

It gives me a stiffy!

[bmwcyle]

This Buds for you, "Sadam" (GB Sr. use to say)

[CholeraJoe]

Hey Saddam! Meet Daisy.

[ScholarWarrior]

You will be able to feel the shock waves in the US.

[Harmless Teddy Bear]

TMI

[missnry]

MAN!!
Nice Photos.
You can see the guy in cammies standing behind those control fins. That thing makes a 2000 lb. JDAM look like a girlie toy!

In honor of Saddam's mother of all battles we give you.

Mother
Of
All
Battles

The final chapter!!

I want to see the video of this hound dog in the hunt!!

BTTT

[SevenDaysInMay]

Big BLU crapped by Hercules. Regularity is a good feeling.

Remember that most construction in that part of the world is little more than stacked, dried-mud bricks. Much of those "bricks" are not even up to our adobe standards as they lack straw providing some resistance to crumbling. Cemented concrete blocks provide "high strength", load bearing walls in most of their "modern" developments.

Shock waves, even at only a few psi, can severly damage buildings, crushing those in hiding. Glass does not stand a chance. It is almost sad. Almost.

[Squantos]

Way to many things wrong in this text from StrategyPage.com 11B3. Fuel Air Explosive is FAE not FAS. Nor was the BLU 82 Daisy Cutter a FAE or FAS bomb. It is a 15000 pound bomb filled with a slurry not unlike commercial ANFO.

The pictures are nice but what else have these smart guys screwed up in the report about this new and improved MOAB ? Archy or Patton..... you have anything on this new wizbang thang ?

Stay Safe

[Brian Allen]

<< After the 1991 Gulf War, the United States started to get rid of it's various FAS weapons. >>

And -- thanks to Peking's "Our 'man' in Washington," KKKomelade KKKri'toon, most of our other means of defense, too!

[archy]

Nor was the BLU 82 Daisy Cutter a FAE or FAS bomb. It is a 15000 pound bomb filled with a slurry not unlike commercial ANFO.

The pictures are nice but what else have these smart guys screwed up in the report about this new and improved MOAB? Archy or Patton....you have anything on this new wizbang thing ?

Only that the old BLU-82 was NOT an ANFO slurry, but used a filler of water gel-based explosive not unlike commercial Tovex and Pourvex; developed by Mel Cook, the explosives chemist who was the *daddy* of water based explosives and one of those in on the Air Force *instant [helicopter] landing zone* development almost from the beginning, and was himself present for the initial live firings at Eglin AFB in Florida. Indeed, the BLU-82 was such a supurb utilization of both the chemistry and physical capabilities of the delivery aircraft used during the Vietnam era, the C-130B, that it lasted not only through the Vietnam War, but was dusted off for a psywar surprise for Saddam's troopies in 1991. But today's most probably delivery bird, the MC-130P is capable of a good deal more than the Herky birds of 35 years ago; and since anhydrous hydrazine is used as fuel in the USAFs F16 fighter's emergency power unit and is thereby available, I'd wonder if they might well have gone to an ammonium nitrate/ hydrazine/aluminumum powder mixture for even greater blast effect, at the cost of being a good deal more difficult to prepare, as hydrazine is particularly nasty stuff and requires very careful special handling.

Gerald Hurst, the developer of Astrolite A-1-5, sometimes referred to as *the most powerful non-nuclear explosive on Earth* [which it isn't, though it is way up there and is one of the more common and cost-effective this side of a research lab] was also involved in those tests at Eglin, using Astrolite in napalm bomb cannisters as the first experiments into what would eventually become the BLU-82. And his rig for mixing the ingredients required and loading those cannisters neatly fit into a semitrailer rig that was driven from Seattle to Eglin, and I'd expect such equipment, modernized, could be handily flown overseas via a C130, or certainly by a C17 or C141B. And a MUCH greater effect on the target might make the change in materials, filler and procedures worthwhile, even if the supplu of prepared BLU-82 casings wasn't running short...our target nowadays isn't triple-canopy jungle needing cleared for helicopter insertion, so they may well have improved the effects of the MOAB by switching explosive fillers.

Either way, I'm glad to not be on the receiving end. Hmmmm, I wonder if one of those big fellas wound blow out an oil rig fire, as per the *Hellfighters* and *Boots and Coots* explosive charges used in Kuwait after the wells there had been fired up....

-archy-/-