Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Politics : PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: haqihana who wrote (196517)	10/26/2001 5:20:58 PM
From: jlallen	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 769670

Fuel-air explosives were another group of weapons used against Iraq. The U.S. Central Command says they were used to clear minefields in Kuwait throughout the war, although it is reluctant to identify the specific weapons used. Predecessors to fuel-air explosives were incendiary or fire bombs, weapons filled with highly flammable material such as thermite, magnesium powder, or napalm-a mixture of gasoline and benzene with aluminum or polystyrene soap as a thickener. These weapons would spread fire over wide areas and, when ignited in restricted areas such as bunkers, would consume so much oxygen that victims who were not burned to death would suffocate. Fuel-air explosives form highly gaseous mixtures which, when detonated, produce much more blast than fire. For their size and weight, they provide a much larger blast than any other weapon except for nuclear devices; in fact, the blast can mimic a small nuclear explosion. They were first widely used in Vietnam to destroy Vietcong tunnels and to clear heavily wooded areas for helicopter landing sites. Some are launched from aircraft, others from helicopters or ground vehicles. For example, the appropriately named MAD FAE (mass air delivery fuel- air explosive) consists of 12 containers of ethylene oxide or propylene oxide trailed behind utility helicopters. The containers release a cloud of highly volatile vapors which, when mixed with air and detonated, can cover an area over 1,000 feet long with blast pressures five times that of TNT. A surface unit consists of an armored vehicle with 30 launch tubes for five-inch Zuni rockets equipped with fuel-air munitions to detonate mine fields. U.S. inventories also include an airdropped unit of three 100-pound canisters filled with ethylene oxide. A proximity fuse bursts the canisters 30 feet above ground and disperses an aerosol cloud more than 2,500 cubic yards in volume which is detonated a few inches above ground by a second charge. The blast overpressures of 300 pounds per square inch will flatten everything within a 60-foot radius and kill any troops nearby, both above and below ground. Just a few pounds overpressure is lethal for humans. One "favorite of the Marine Corps" in the Mideast, according to an anonymous Pentagon spokesman, was the BLU-82, known as "Big Blue 82" or "Daisy Cutter." Last used in Vietnam by U.S. Special Forces for clearing helicopter landing sites, the 15,000-pound bomb is filled with an aqueous mixture of ammonium nitrate, aluminum powder, and polystyrene soap. It can only be launched from a cargo aircraft, the MC-130 Hercules, by rolling it out the rear cargo door. The bomb descends by parachute and detonates just above ground, producing blast overpressures of 1,000 pounds per square inch and disintegrating everything within hundreds of yards. It can be used to clear minefields or against concentrations of troops, aircraft, and equipment. How many of these blockbusters were actually used is still unknown.

To: haqihana who wrote (196517)	10/26/2001 5:30:37 PM
From: willcousa	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 769670

The key to using nukes is to drop them from a B-2 at nite and then blame it on a failed bin Laggin experiment.