Captain's Quarters -

Another lesson that they seem to have forgotten, is that we have way more money than they do.
So we can spend a lot on the R&D for a 30,000 pound penetrating bomb.

The Russian bomb was nothing more than XL version of the MOAB.

K

Old, old story so may be new to some...

Russians open psych war front by special ordering one million 18-inch condoms.

CIA forges labels on delivered product: "Medium"

peace would be nice

It's the military equivalent of accusing someone of premature ejaculation.

And that is almost as bad as pulling out before the job is completed. Do that and you won't get bacon and eggs for breakfast. Do it enough and you lose all credibility and might not get the opportunity to try again.

"or to do some instant ethnic cleansing"

Something that Russia has a long history of doing.

a new massive ordnance penetrator that's 30,000 pounds, that really penetrates ... Ahmadinejad has nothing in Iran that we can't penetrate.

Ahem. I thought the operative words were "don't ask, don't tell."

Come on Captain, daisy cutter? Everyone here knows what a MOAB is.

It was interesting to see how the Russian's upscaled MOAB was greeted so warmly by Liberals, since it was called "green" and "environmentally friendly" among other things...

That's not what I'm thinking.

I think the russians are natural born braggerts; and they wanted to counter the "OOPS, JAMS FOR YOU." After getting lots of money from the syrians and iranians.

They also didn't expect a return on their advertising investment; where they now know we have them beat in the super-duper penetration department.

Maybe, they ran their mouths just to be sure?

Sort'a like smearing out some honey. To see if you can attract your prey? (Of course, this works best if you're shooting bears.)

In another department, General Petraeus smacked down Hillary; pointing out to the press that to be in Irak, took the cooperation of the Hill. Who voted the "go" signal. And, then who voted in the funds. Can't escape the truth. And, the Internet brings this out, showing, in a hurry!

Oh, and it seems the Yankees are headed into the October playoffs. So, the NY POST has ventured to guess, Hillary won't be showing up, at Yankee Stadium, to be in the audience. My guess? She's worried about the boo's. Rudy, however, will be there.

And, Rudy still stays on top as a vote getter; when you reach beyond "the base" ... and look to see the MAINSTREAM ... The swirling waters of which contain Bonkey voters you can peel off.

For Fred? Go to Hot Air; they have a hillarious clip where Fred had a role as Rosanne's boss; back in the days when she was young. And, her show was successful. And, he plays a horny creep. Funny then? Well, I suppose. But totally at his expense.

So many things on the plate to choose from; and, they are all yummy.

I think this is a slap at Russian manhood, actually.

Apparently it's just me, but I got a chuckle out of the B-52 accidental nuke story. It happened right after Russia started flying their Bears, assuring the world that they don't carry nukes. It was as if the Air Force was saying "Oh yeah? Our bombers are so manly they can carry nukes by accident!"

Actually, the "Daisy Cutter" AKA Big Blue, was designed to clear LZs in Vietnam, not to flatten villages. A few were dropped in the latter stages of Desert Storm, mostly to intimidate the few remaining Republican Guardsmen who might have harbored heroic thoughts of dying for Saddam.

Apparently an Australian SAS team was deep in the desert not far from where one was dropped. An Aussie Sergeant exclaimed "Good God, the Yanks are dropping nukes!"

love - peace through strength.

"I think this is a slap at Russian manhood"

Yeah, especially this part...

>

Ya gotta get it up to get it in, Ivan.

Ed. you missed your calling-- you need to write romance novels... COMEDY romance novels.

The daisycutter (BLU-82b) was also used in Afghanistan. That time it was used on Taliban fighters in shallow caves and foxholes. The shockwave will kill you even if you have plenty of dirt between you and the impact point.

As far as I know the MOAB has never been used operationally.

Maybe it is just that anal retentive side of me...but did anyone look closely at the video released by the Russians of the dropping and detonation of their "otetz vsech bombi?"

There is a nice shot of a Tu-160 [Blackjack} at altitude, opening its bomb bay...then another shot of a parachute-deployed large cannister being daragged out of the back end of what appears to be the cargo ramp of an An-12[Cub] transport, also at altitude.

Seems to me that one should not deploy a parachute drag-out roll-out device from a bomb bay. From a cargo ramp is fine, we do it all the time. But from a bomb bay? The chute would get caught up in the slipstream of the aircraft, probably wrapping around a tail surface if you tried to roll it out the way shown on the Russian released video. Having several throusand pounds of excess weight suddenly applied to the rear end of a Tu-160 would sharply affect the flight dynamics to a no recovery mode within seconds.

Wonder why they showed the Blackjack in the distant shot and the inside of an An-12 in the close-up? Also wonder who came up with they only have one plane capable of deploying this weapon notion?

Slow-burn, high-concussive bombs can do wonders...whether it is a MOAB or a OVB ["father of all bombs"] and there are a variety of uses. [BTW the 'daisy cutter' BLB-82 has been around in various incarnations since WWII, but not really advanced to an operational use until we needed a quick way to carve out LZ's and fire-bases in Vietnam.] Of the common uses of one of these concussive over pressure bombs would be against large open formations of massed troops. Sucking the air (and life...) out of caverns and caves in a tight valley floor is another. Causing mass spalling within caves or under ground bunker structures, when coupled with penatrator systems, is yet another. [P'yongyang, take notice.] Leveling villages seems a waste of ordinance given the alternatives.

Now, tied to a multi-round penatrator attack of a large facility, one of these MOAB's following on after intial penetration of two or more weapons would cause catastrophic collapse of both underground facitities and those above ground as well within the shock ring of the weapons. Would probably resemble The Crater at Fredricksburg...only bigger, much bigger. The Iranian facilities at Bushehr, for example would be an ideal target for a combined penetrator/over-pressure weapon attack.

As to the phallic references with regard to the Russians. Hasn't Russian masculinity suffered enough? First they lost one of the most massive military formations the world has known with but a whimper. Then most if not all their women who are mostly both good looking and well educated immigrated to the West, leaving behind those who are less educated and look like Andrei Gromyko's wife or Brezhnev's wife...large and in charge...then the price of vodka continues to rise and the quality declines, and countries that the Russians once owned are now doing so much better than they are...it has got to deflate more than their egos...oh well, better them than me.

McInerney's rant is a total non sequitur. Apparently the Russians never claimed it was a penetrator, and of course it isn't. It is designed to attack surface or near surface targets. The bomb wound not even explode underground except for a small initiating charge since the main explosion comes from mixing a fuel carried in the bomb with ambient air. This results in a moderately high overpressure over a much larger area than could be achieved with a similar sized high explosive bomb.

The earliest fuel air explosive weapon that I am aware of was developed at China Lake in the sixties. The people at China Lake told me it was the first. The purpose of this weapon had nothing to do with anything I have read here. It was to clear a path through a mine field for safe passage of ground troops.

It seems to me that there is more hyperbole in this post than in the Russian announcement.

Cap'n says: "even the Soviets didn't use those kinds of tactics in Afghanistan."

Um, yes they did, several times.

We could load up a 747 with 300 tons of explosives, and put a robot in the cockpit, and THAT would become the world's largest nonnuclear bomb.

And there's clearly a need for such an airframe-- Speaker Pelosi needs an official jet to fly to Syria with, and that free-to-her Gulfstream IV just ain't doing it...

Peace is not the most important thing, either in how an individual life is lived, nor in how a society functions. Anyone who focuses in solely on the word "peace" to the exclusion of everything else is severely undereducated.

Oops, somehow I deleted the punchline...

"I think this is a slap at Russian manhood"

Yeah, especially this part...

>He also said the new Russian bomb was not a "penetrator."

Ya gotta get it up to get it in, Ivan.