USA drops "Mother of All Bombs" on Afghanistan

USA drops "Mother of All Bombs" on Afghanistan

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Discussion

CoolHands

18,496 posts

194 months

Thursday 13th April 2017
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Probably PR, Trump wants to be a player. So they killed a few rats in tunnels, I'm sure it wasn't particularly necessary.

jonnyb

2,590 posts

251 months

Thursday 13th April 2017
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Deptford Draylons said:
You had a ten ton bomb dropping from Lancasters during world war two. Nothing special, but hopefully took out a few of the good for only potato peeling British IS crowd.
Very true, but the yield from this one is substantially more.

WindyCommon

3,354 posts

238 months

Thursday 13th April 2017
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Jockman said:
Is that Madagascar orange??
Looks like BMW Fire Orange to me.

Mike_Mac

664 posts

199 months

Thursday 13th April 2017
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Pffft! That was nothing... back in WW2 before the US went Nuclear the RAF was dropping these:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grand_Slam_(bomb)

ETA - as Deptford Draylons has already pointed out!! smile

dcb

5,834 posts

264 months

Thursday 13th April 2017
quotequote all
Mike_Mac said:
Pffft! That was nothing... back in WW2 before the US went Nuclear the RAF was dropping these:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grand_Slam_(bomb)

ETA - as Deptford Draylons has already pointed out!! smile
+1.

British RAF was doing this 70+ years ago, thanks to the wizardry of Barnes-Wallis.

Give the US propensity for Blue-on-Blue damage time after time
after time. any troops in the area must have been pretty worried.



rich85uk

3,312 posts

178 months

Thursday 13th April 2017
quotequote all
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i9H50tHiHjs

eekeek

2 VERY important dates in North Korea are also only a few days away scratchchin

Bill

52,482 posts

254 months

Thursday 13th April 2017
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WindyCommon said:
Jockman said:
Is that Madagascar orange??
Looks like BMW Fire Orange to me.
Now known as Trump Orange.

Gettoff

1,434 posts

206 months

Thursday 13th April 2017
quotequote all
Jockman said:
Is that Madagascar orange??
rofl tw*t

Evening Jockers, hope you are well wavey

citizensm1th

8,371 posts

136 months

Thursday 13th April 2017
quotequote all
the yanks love a bit of squeeze suck blow

Tango13

8,398 posts

175 months

Thursday 13th April 2017
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dcb said:
Mike_Mac said:
Pffft! That was nothing... back in WW2 before the US went Nuclear the RAF was dropping these:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grand_Slam_(bomb)

ETA - as Deptford Draylons has already pointed out!! smile
+1.

British RAF was doing this 70+ years ago, thanks to the wizardry of Barnes-Wallis.

Give the US propensity for Blue-on-Blue damage time after time
after time. any troops in the area must have been pretty worried.
And a B-36 could carry two of them!

When dropping one the bomb aimer would even take into account the rotation of the earth during the time between bomb release and impact to ensure either a near miss or direct hit depending on the type of target.

///ajd

8,964 posts

205 months

Thursday 13th April 2017
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I recall the daisy cutters were intended to clear trees to create helicopter landing zones in vietnam.

The grand slam was an earthquake device, devised by wallis to take out hardened nazi targets like the V2 facilities in the pas de calais.

I vaguely recall seeing a grand slam under the lancaster gate guard at Scampton. Someone told me that it had been there for donkeys years, and some years back they needed to move it - only to find it was a live round!

BlackLabel

13,251 posts

122 months

Thursday 13th April 2017
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Clinton mastered the art of lobbing a few bombs here and there when things aren't going too well at home and it seems Trump is following suit, and it's working - Syria and now this. There's nothing better to unite the good folks of the United States than a new war or an escalation of a current conflict. Yee-haw!


Tankrizzo

7,247 posts

192 months

Thursday 13th April 2017
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ibGinettaRant

Jonesy23

4,650 posts

135 months

Thursday 13th April 2017
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So in 70+ years we have gone from a 22,000lb bomb with a 6.5t equivalent yield to a 22,600lb one with an 11t yield.

Plus a bit more precision in where it hits. But the new one utterly lacks the penetration & effects that the original managed, all it does is make a big unsophisticated bang designed for shock & awe.

I wonder if they're starting to time expire (they only made a few, and 14 years ago) and someone thought they might as well use them?


dcb

5,834 posts

264 months

Thursday 13th April 2017
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///ajd said:
hardened nazi targets like the V2 facilities in the pas de calais.
Always worth a visit. Some serious concrete.

http://www.leblockhaus.com/en/

Only 30 minutes drive from Calais. Recommended.

Wacky Racer

38,099 posts

246 months

Thursday 13th April 2017
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citizensm1th said:
the yanks love a bit of squeeze suck blow
Who doesn't?.

///ajd

8,964 posts

205 months

Thursday 13th April 2017
quotequote all
dcb said:
///ajd said:
hardened nazi targets like the V2 facilities in the pas de calais.
Always worth a visit. Some serious concrete.

http://www.leblockhaus.com/en/

Only 30 minutes drive from Calais. Recommended.
There is also the wizernes one (la coupole) which is even more impressive - a huge dome with tunnels for the erect rockets to roll out and launch.

This was actually taken out by tallboys, the smaller forerunner of the grand slam. They didn't score any hits on the concrete dome, but totally wrecked all around it, ruining the site and tunnels and shifting the dome at an angle it still sits at today.

citizensm1th

8,371 posts

136 months

Thursday 13th April 2017
quotequote all
Wacky Racer said:
citizensm1th said:
the yanks love a bit of squeeze suck blow
Who doesn't?.
Isisbiggrin

130R

6,807 posts

205 months

Thursday 13th April 2017
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AshVX220 said:
nyxster said:
It is exactly what it was designed for. There was a documentary on the design and testing of it, It's a fuel/air bomb, so when it detonates its designed to suck all the air from the surrounding area - by dropping it at the mouth of the cave it sucks all the air out creating a vacuum inside suffocating the occupants instantly. Victim post mortens showed their lungs were literally sucked flat like a deflated balloon.
Not a good way to go is it, like a Nuke, I think if you were to be targeted by this, you'd want to be right underneath it when it goes off.
Still probably better than having a thermite cluster bomb or white phosphorus dropped on your head.

FN2TypeR

7,091 posts

92 months

Thursday 13th April 2017
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Deptford Draylons said:
You had a ten ton bomb dropping from Lancasters during world war two. Nothing special, but hopefully took out a few of the good for only potato peeling British IS crowd.
I would imagine that this thing is a tad more potent than the earthquake bombs that you're speaking about due to technological advances.

In 1944 the RAF used a smaller version of that bomb to disable a German battleship that was hangin' around the Norwegian fjords by the by - the Tirpitz, they weighed about five tons, so half that of the grand slams, but they were still forceful enough to destroy a man made embankment that the ship had been beached against to keep it upright, between that and the damage inflicted (one the bombs penetrated the deck armour, no mean feat, and tore a hole in the keel) it sank in next to no time, less than half an hour.

Edited by FN2TypeR on Thursday 13th April 20:22