MOAB Dropped in Afghanistan

[The Conservative]

http://edition.cnn.com/2017/04/13/polit ... moab-bomb/

This was to remove ISIS "rats" from tunnels. I like the way they are thinking.

[Lemonade]

I'm hoping a video shows up on r/combatfootage.

[Ex-California]

Damn beat me to it.

Its really too bad that nukes have such a stigma. Low yield tactical bombs could be delivered a lot easier than this 6 ton behemoth

[ssu]

Did they really use the MOAB for the first time?

Damn beat me to it.

Its really too bad that nukes have such a stigma. Low yield tactical bombs could be delivered a lot easier than this 6 ton behemoth

People don't understand nuclear radiation. Just look at the hysteria of any nuclear power plant accident.

And Chernobyl? It's been estimated that the fallout was bigger than all nuclear test done in the atmosphere combined. End result: a wildlife refuge in the border between Ukraine and Belarus.

[kybkh]

X999999

[Smitty-48]

Diminishing returns, the shockwave is big, but the ground still absorbs most of it, digging deep pretty much neutralizes raw firepower, no matter how much you pile on, since World War One in fact, big boom, but doesn't actually kill that many guys in the end.

The nuclear option is overrated as well, nukes are about heat and radiation, the shockwave has a maximum velocity, the speed of sound, so the kinetic force from a nuke is not actually any more powerful than a MOAB.

[kybkh]

It's all about the vacuum though right?

imploding lungs and what not...

[ssu]

Diminishing returns, the shockwave is big, but the ground still absorbs most of it, digging deep pretty much neutralizes raw firepower, no matter how much you pile on, since World War One in fact, big boom, but doesn't actually kill that many guys in the end.

The nuclear option is overrated as well, nukes are about heat and radiation, the shockwave has a maximum velocity, the speed of sound, so the kinetic force from a nuke is not actually any more powerful than a MOAB.

I remember people talking about ground penetrating nukes in the 1980's. Bunker busters on steroids.



Anybody know how much difference there is between a MOAB and the old Daisycutter? MOAB needs a Cargo plane, obviously...

[Smitty-48]

It's all about the vacuum though right?

imploding lungs and what not...

The effect doesn't go that deep, most of the explosion is wasted, you'll kill some, but you won't kill as many as you'd think, considering the size of the bomb, that's why I say diminishing returns, a smaller bomb would have similar effects, the bigger bomb is just for propaganda, to impress the rubes.

[Speaker to Animals]

You also can't reach people in bunkers with nukes without a surface blast, which is going to create a massive fallout cloud that spreads across a hemisphere, making everybody (rightly) extremely pissed at the people responsible.

The really fancy stuff is designed to penetrate bunkers and kill people inside, but they don't have much success as of yet. At the end of the day, you still have to send guys in there to clear them out. Which sucks.