We just tested a 21,000 pound fuel-air bomb in Florida.
The military calls it the Massive Ordnance Air Burst (MOAB).
The Air Force informally refers to it as "The Mother of All Bombs"
The Iraqi words for it is "Oh shit!…."
Dropping Da Bomb
Published
This is taken from jayreding.com, February 9.
“The Dawn Of The E-Bomb
Newsweek is now confirming that EMP weapons will be used as the first-strike weapon against Iraq. It will be interesting to see the effectiveness of these weapons in combat.
This also is a strong indication that another assumption I’m making about an invasion of Iraq is correct – this will be a smart war. The anti-war crowd seems to think that our promise of using “spectacular” offensives against the Iraqis mean that we’re going to kill a lot of people.The anti-war crowd knows next to nothing about the realities of modern warfare. The age of the dumb iron bomb has long since passed for the US military. Now, it’s about leveraging power in the most precise manner possible. That means debilitating and destroying command communication and leadership functions – essentially cutting off the head of the cobra before it even has the chance to strike.”
Do you want me to comment? I will at least say that it would be one hell of a “pecise manner” of striking if the MOAB were to be used. It would also confirm the apprehensions protestors have about war being “spectacular.”
Janek
Perhaps this bomb should be named the “Saddamizer.”
I think you’re wrong about it being a fuel-air bomb. From what I’ve read it’s just a big, big, conventionally explosive bomb.
Justin: It looks like you’re right on that one…
Somebody want to tell me what sort of practical use exists for this damn thing? Other than probably looking pretty neat when it detonates…
Practical use? Some senior Congressman really gets to have his back patted for landing the plant that manufactures the weapon in his home district.
It’s powerful enough to knock over or destroy entire tank columns, vaporize troops on the ground, collapse hardened bunkers and caves, and it scares the holy living crap out of the enemy.
It’s actually pretty useful…
Hrmm, massive tank columns, troop formations…
We in the same century here?
Do you mean, “are the world’s military forces in the same century as ours?” The answer is no, they’re not. Most of the world still tools around in Cold-war era Soviet stuff. The Kalishnikov AK-47 rifle (and it’s innumerable copies) is still the premier assualt weapon for a lot of the world’s forces. Either that, or we’re talking about terrorists, whose methodology is about 50 years ahead of the military in terms of distributed operations.
Compared to “official” military forces, we’re way ahead. Compared to modern terrorism, we’re slightly behind.