Why is the US using thermobaric weapons in Occupied Iraq?

[DoYouEverWonder]

MARINES QUIET ABOUT BRUTAL NEW WEAPON

November 14, 2005

War is hell. But it’s worse when the Marines bring out their new urban combat weapon, the SMAW-NE. Which may be why they’re not talking about it, much.

This is a version of the standard USMC Shoulder Mounted Assault Weapon but with a new warhead. Described as NE - "Novel Explosive"- it is a thermobaric mixture which ignites the air, producing a shockwave of unparalleled destructive power, especially against buildings.

A post-action report from Iraq describes the effect of the new weapon: "One unit disintegrated a large one-storey masonry type building with one round from 100 meters. They were extremely impressed." Elsewhere it is described by one Marine as "an awesome piece of ordnance."

It proved highly effective in the battle for Fallujah. This from the Marine Corps Gazette, July edition: "SMAW gunners became expert at determining which wall to shoot to cause the roof to collapse and crush the insurgents fortified inside interior rooms."

-- David Hambling

http://www.defensetech.org/archives/001944.html

Shouldn't a weapon like this be called a Weapon of Mass Destruction. The US is the Occupying Power in Iraq. We went into Iraq because we had to stop Saddam from getting WMD's, yet we turn around and use WMD's on the Iraqi people? This is beyond disgusting.

[Posteritatis]

1. Single building != WMD

Trivializing the weapons people should really worry about by calling what's effectively a big grenade a "weapon of mass destruction" is patently ridiculous.

[DoYouEverWonder]

3. So it's okay to pulverize buildings

blow out the walls and let the roof drop on the occupants as long as you do it one building at a time?

[annabanana]

5. that's not what he said...

an atomic bomb is a "WMD" ... vaporizing miles and miles of territory all at once.

.........not that this thing isn't disgusting and horrible to contemplate

[DoYouEverWonder]

6. There are now small nukes too

yet any nuke is considered a WMD, like those nuclear bunker busters that Rummie lusts after.

What is the difference if you use one of these thermobaric devices on a 5 story building or a 100 story building? Does it then become a WMD?

[TheWraith]

10. There have always been small nukes.

The SADM, Special Atomic Demolition Munition, was a nuke the size of a large backpack capable of being deployed with paratroopers. The Davy Crockett was a 50-pound nuke mounted on rocket artillery, for use against infantry formations. Both of these were designed in the '50s and '60s.

Traditionally, the phrase "weapons of mass destruction" is reserved for what are more accurately called special weapons: nuclear, biological, and chemical weaponry, or NBCs. Of course, some of these, like biological weapons, cause no "destruction" as such... the phrase never has been very well defined.

[DoYouEverWonder]

17. What is a fuel-air weapon?

A big enough thermobaric weapon can do the same thing, except without the radiation problem afterward.



Fuel-air weapons work by initially detonating a scattering charge within a bomb, rocket or grenade warhead. The warhead contents, which are composed of either volatile gases, liquids or finely powdered explosives, form an aerosol cloud. This cloud is then ignited and the subsequent fireball sears the surrounding area while consuming the oxygen in this area. The lack of oxygen creates an enormous overpressure. This overpressure, or blast wave, is the primary casualty-producing force. In several dozen microseconds, the pressure at the center of the explosion can reach 30 kilograms per square centimeter (427 pounds per square inch) – normal atmospheric pressure at sea level is 14.7 pounds per square inch with a temperature between 2,500-3,000 degrees Centigrade <4,532-5,432 degrees Fahrenheit>. This is 1.5 to 2 times greater than the overpressure caused by conventional explosives. Personnel under the cloud are literally crushed to death. Outside the cloud area, the blast wave travels at some 3,000 meters per second <9843 feet per second>1. The resultant vacuum pulls in loose objects to fill the void.

As a result, a fuel-air explosive can have the effect of a tactical nuclear weapon without residual radiation.


http://fmso.leavenworth.army.mil/documents/fuelair/fuelair.htm

[Posteritatis]

7. If they're shooting at you from that building? Sure, why not? (nt)

[DoYouEverWonder]

8. Sure

Even if they're not shooting at you. Let's nuke them anyway. Just in case.

:sarcasm:

[Posteritatis]

9. How about you put some *more* words in my mouth? (nt)

[DoYouEverWonder]

12. I was responding to your post

I wasn't putting anything in your mouth.

[Posteritatis]

13. Where'd I suggest killing noncombatants? (nt)

[DoYouEverWonder]

16. Where did I say you did?

n/t

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

2. Got to test them some where.

It's like blended metal bullets.

[Karenina]

4. Oh you silly DYEW!

Lot$ o' cabbage got invested in these penile replacements. They been sittin' on a shelf and WHOOOPEE here comes a chance to clear the inventory so the company that built 'em can get ANOTHER bloated contract to build some more "new and improved" ones!

GET WIT DA PROGRAM!!! :spank: :hug:

[deaniac21]

11. Blown up = Blown up

[leftchick]

14. that certainly explains the widescale destruction in Fallujah

is Ramadi next.

[DoYouEverWonder]

15. Sounds like they've been using them all along

Fallujah was just the first of many.

[leftofthedial]

18. one building is not mass destruction