Posted on 02/27/2003 4:21:08 PM PST by 11B3
February 27, 2003: The U.S. Air Force is developing a new, 2nd generation, ten ton Fuel Air Explosive (FAS) bomb. It will replace the older "Daisy Cutter" FAS bomb developed during the 1960s. This was a 7.5 ton Fuel Air Explosive for clearing landing zones in the Vietnam jungle. Fuel Air Explosives work by dropping a bomb that is actually a large aerosol dispenser. When the FAS "explodes" it first dispenses a large cloud of flammable material (anything like gasoline or propane will work). The cloud is then ignited and huge explosion results. There's one drawback, the size and density of the aerosol cloud depends a lot on the wind, air temperature and humidity. So the power of the explosion will vary a lot.
The new FAS bomb, called MOAB (Massive Ordnance Air Burst) gets around some of these problems by borrowing (or licensing) from Russia research in this area. Russia has developed more effective aerosol materials and produced a wide range of FAS (or "termobaric", as they like to call them) weapons. In dry, dusty conditions, the Daisy Cutter produces a mushroom cloud similar to that created by a nuclear explosion (and for the same reason, the sheer size of the explosion creates an upward pull that sends up a "mushroom" of smoke and dust on a column of smoke).
In addition to a more reliable and powerful explosion, MOAB doesn’t need a parachute, like the Daisy Cutter, but uses a GPS (like JDAM) and an aerodynamic body to detonate the bomb at a precise area. Thus the MOAB can be dropped from a higher altitude (like outside the range of machine-guns and rifles). Like the Daisy Cutter, MOAB is shoved out the back of a cargo aircraft (usually a C-130, but since the MOAB uses GPS and higher altitude drops, the C-17 can probably be used as well.)
MOAB is a highly destructive and terrifying weapon. If used in Iraq, it would demoralize any Iraqi troops in the vicinity who survived the explosion. The force of a MOAB explosion is sufficient to knock over tanks and kill any people within several hundred meters of the detonation.
After the 1991 Gulf War, the United States started to get rid of it's various FAS weapons. But some were left in the inventory when the Afghanistan came along and the success of Daisy Cutters there, plus the new Russian research in FAS weapons, led to the new American research effort.
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.
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..........
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.
This Buds for you, "Sadam" (GB Sr. use to say)
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
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-/-
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