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CNN: US drops its largest conventional bomb (MOAB) on ISIS target in Afghanistan

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K

Kensation

Member
It's almost like this would be a bomb you would use against a certain totalitarian state's underground nuclear test facility.
 
Z

ZOONAMI

Junior Member
Kensation said:
It's almost like this would be a bomb you would use against a certain totalitarian state's underground nuclear test facility.
Click to expand...

Can nukes go off by being hit with a conventional bomb? I would think you would still have to worry about waste at the very least.
 
T

thefragrance

Member
Like many have pointed out itt, pundits are going to go nuts over Trump's warmongering and how presidential he is. But of course killary was a warhawk, a mindless warmonger who would start ww3.
 
L

Lautaro

Member
Kensation said:
It's almost like this would be a bomb you would use against a certain totalitarian state's underground nuclear test facility.
Click to expand...

It doesn't sound like that, it sounds like a perfect weapon designed for Afghanistan's caves. For lil Kim you already have bunker busters for the bunkers (duh) and cruise missiles for the mobile platforms.

I only hope the enemy combatants don't have their families living in the caves with them.
 
B

Bronx-Man

Banned
Aw yeah, look at all that death and destruction, baby! Dozens screaming for their little lives!

C7vu-W5VYAErrGP.jpg


Ladies and gentlemen, I can't imagine a more awe-inspiring sight than this weapon invented specifically for the annihilation of human life doing what it was made for! THIS is the moment where Donald Trump finally became president! God Bless America, Fly United, Drink Pepsi!
 
K

Kin5290

Member
ZOONAMI said:
Can nukes go off by being hit with a conventional bomb? I would think you would still have to worry about waste at the very least.
Click to expand...
No. Nukes don't work that way.

Blowing up a nuke may destroy it in a way that exposes the fissile material to the environment, however.

The MOAB would be a poor choice to destroy a hardened, underground nuclear weapons bunker. Penetrating some rock is a lot different than penetrating layers and layers of reinforced concrete.
 
W

WhiteRabbitEXE

Member
I don't think utilizing the MOAB is necessarily a "bad" thing, for what it's worth. What I DO think is that *Trump* using it is outright terrifying. Not only do I have no confidence in his ability to properly plan strikes and operate with long term goals and strategies, this is a man who lives off the praise of his supporters and the media, and he just got TONS of it for doing a whole lot of nothing with a whole lot of missiles. This man being praised for dropping bombs is legitimately terrifying when halfway through his campaign he asked why we can't use nukes and said he wouldn't rule out nukes in EUROPE, and we're already seeing him escalating his use of armaments. And it hasn't even been three months. I can't imagine 4 years of feedback -> escalation loops.
 
R

radios shipping overview

Member
WhiteRabbitEXE said:
I don't think utilizing the MOAB is necessarily a "bad" thing, for what it's worth. What I DO think is that *Trump* using it is outright terrifying. Not only do I have no confidence in his ability to properly plan strikes and operate with long term goals and strategies, this is a man who lives off the praise of his supporters and the media, and he just got TONS of it for doing a whole lot of nothing with a whole lot of missiles. This man being praised for dropping bombs is legitimately terrifying when halfway through his campaign he asked why we can't use nukes and said he wouldn't rule out nukes in EUROPE, and we're already seeing him escalating his use of armaments. And it hasn't even been three months. I can't imagine 4 years of feedback -> escalation loops.
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He's happy to take all the praise for an operation that's been in planning since the Obama administration, and that he had nothing to do with.

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/us-drops-mother-of-all-bombs-in-afghanistan-marking-weapons-first-use/

The strike had been in the works for a number of months, dating back to the Obama administration, CBS News national security correspondent David Martin reports. The weapon was brought into Afghanistan specifically for Thursday’s mission.

At the White House, President Trump called the mission “another very, very successful mission.” Asked if he personally authorized the strike, Mr. Trump said “everybody knows exactly what happened.”

“What I do is I authorize my military,” Mr. Trump said. “We have the greatest military in the world and they’ve done their job as usual. So, we have given them total authorization and that’s what they’re doing.”
Click to expand...
 
K

Keasar

Member
One Eyed Willy said:
Yes, this is exactly how key military decisions are made. Totally this, you should base your entire opinion around exactly the above.
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Latvian Hitman said:
The MOAB is a specific type of weapon used for a specific type of target. Without getting into the humanitarian or political side of the decision, from a military standpoint, this is the weapon of choice for eliminating targets in an underground cave system. It wasn't chosen randomly, and Trump likely had little or nothing to do with the decision to use it outside of a possible "thumbs up" to the idea once a case was made before him.
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Stormhammer said:
yes, i think you've figured it out. trump just picks what he wants and presses the "make bomb" button and that bomb is made and then he presses the "explode here" button and it explodes there. it's really that simple
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So I guess the failed Special Forces op that killed a ton of civilians, the sudden missile attack on a Syrian airbase that did jackshit in the end and now this which potentially have killed even more civilians considering that unlike a bunker buster it's not a precision attack and more like a "Fuck this whole area"-strike, each approved by the orange manbaby, they were all level headed and highly strategic choices made by the US. Trump administration?

I rather believe that Trump is just pushing a "Bomb this" button at this point.
 
A

Aikidoka

Member
siddx said:
Japan and Germany are both examples of following warfare with rebuilding to stamp out extremism.
Click to expand...

I'm referring to France's utter failures to retain their colonies and combat insurgency during the Indochina War and Algerian War. The military handbook for counter-insurgency was written then and seemingly never used.
 
L

Lautaro

Member
jiji said:
He's happy to take all the praise for an operation that's been in planning since the Obama administration, and that he had nothing to do with.

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/us-drops-mother-of-all-bombs-in-afghanistan-marking-weapons-first-use/
Click to expand...

The strike had been in the works for a number of months, dating back to the Obama administration, CBS News national security correspondent David Martin reports. The weapon was brought into Afghanistan specifically for Thursday’s mission.

At the White House, President Trump called the mission “another very, very successful mission.” Asked if he personally authorized the strike, Mr. Trump said “everybody knows exactly what happened.”

“What I do is I authorize my military,” Mr. Trump said. “We have the greatest military in the world and they’ve done their job as usual. So, we have given them total authorization and that’s what they’re doing.”
Click to expand...

Haha, I imagined Trump would say something like that. Well, this thread is proof that he can get away with the merit/blame of the operation thanks to kneejerk reactions.
 
W

wumster3000

Member
Madness said:
ISIS will be defeated during Donald Trump's presidency. They have lost almost all of their control in Syria thanks to Russia and Assad, and Iraqi and Kurdish troops have invalidated them in Iraq. The issue is people equate ISIS with all radical Islamic terrorism now, so anything happens and ISIS claims responsibility when in reality, the walls have closed in and they are barely functioning any more than Al Qaeda is now.

Islamic based terrorism is not being defeated but ISIS and ISIL as we know it are. Some other group will just fill their vacuum when they do go.
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Lol
 
I

iRAWRasaurus

Banned
Bronx-Man said:
Aw yeah, look at all that death and destruction, baby! Dozens screaming for their little lives!

C7vu-W5VYAErrGP.jpg


Ladies and gentlemen, I can't imagine a more awe-inspiring sight than this weapon invented specifically for the annihilation of human life doing what it was made for! THIS is the moment where Donald Trump finally became president! God Bless America, Fly United, Drink Pepsi!
Click to expand...

forgot the "USA! USA! USA!'"
 
A

AmyS

Member
wesleyshark said:
Wow. That thing is massive. o_O
Click to expand...

Yeah, and apparently, Obama ordered some improvements to be made to its capabilities a few years ago to reassure the Israelis that we could take out Iran's nuclear facilities if need be.

Also, at least some of the B-2 stealth bombers had their bomb bays modified so that two of these bombs can be carried in each aircraft.
A B-2 bomber's payload is officially 40,000 to 50,000 pounds of ordnance, so two Massive Ordnance Penetrators would be about 60,000 pounds. That's gotta be pretty stressful on the airframes & engines.
 
S

Seductivpancakes

Member
What people think we can just bomb ideas away? I don't know how anyone can claim victory if ISIS is defeated through bombs, cause ya'll know another group will just take its spot.
 
R

reckless

Member
Seductivpancakes said:
What people think we can just bomb ideas away? I don't know how anyone can claim victory if ISIS is defeated through bombs, cause ya'll know another group will just take its spot.
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ISIS isnt just a terrorist group they are effectively a nation, you can bomb nations away.

They have been losing land for a while now to Assad, SDF and Iraq. The last two were significantly helped by us air strikes.
 
L

littleworm

Member
ZOONAMI said:
Can nukes go off by being hit with a conventional bomb? I would think you would still have to worry about waste at the very least.
Click to expand...

It would be highly unlikely. For a nuclear bomb to detonate properly a very specific order of events have to happen in a very small time frame. In fact the most likely way we would stop a nuclear missile is hitting it with another missile. You would still have to deal with any conventional explosives in the nuclear warhead and deal with the radiation of the fissile material but there wouldn't be an actual nuclear explosion.
 
K

Kin5290

Member
UglyPony said:
I hate ISIS just as much as every other person. But was dropping this bomb really necessary I ask?
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Probably? This scenario (clearing a massive underground tunnel complex) is basically the one situation where dropping such a single, large bomb is actually worthwhile compared to more conventional, more precise munitions that don't require a massive cargo lifter to be deployed.
jakonovski said:
Graduating to war crimes already. He will drop a nuke eventually.
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Do tell how this is a "war crime".
 
P

Patrick Bateman

Member
Just out of curiosity: What's the "smallest" nuke the US-forces currently have?

I don't mean obsolete things like "Davy Crockett", but current bombs.
 
D

Dehnus

Member
Aikidoka said:
I'm referring to France's utter failures to retain their colonies and combat insurgency during the Indochina War and Algerian War. The military handbook for counter-insurgency was written then and seemingly never used.
Click to expand...

Also Japan gets huge passes, but is still quite extremist. Just read up on it these sources are everywhere. But that stuff happened to Asian people, so westerners don't care as much. Also the USA and Britain got that "juicy data" from the conveyor belt vivisection and human testings. SO they looked the other way.

Till this day, people are outraged over this. Germany maybe faced it's past. Japan? Naaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah. Maybe some common soldiers that apologized, but they are vilified in Japan by the Black Van Fanatics that blast their crap while driving through neighborhoods.
 
L

Latvian Hitman

Member
Keasar said:
So I guess the failed Special Forces op that killed a ton of civilians, the sudden missile attack on a Syrian airbase that did jackshit in the end and now this which potentially have killed even more civilians considering that unlike a bunker buster it's not a precision attack and more like a "Fuck this whole area"-strike, each approved by the orange manbaby, they were all level headed and highly strategic choices made by the US. Trump administration?

I rather believe that Trump is just pushing a "Bomb this" button at this point.
Click to expand...

I dislike our current president as much as the next guy, but you're glossing over reports that this strike has been in the works for months, dating back to the end of the Obama administration.
 
K

KeyBladerXIII

Member
I mean, if it was a situation that this bomb was best suited for, I guess it was the correct choice? Not sure about civilians or other potential issues so I won't say this was good or not.
 
D

diehard

Fleer
Patrick Bateman said:
Just out of curiosity: What's the "smallest" nuke the US-forces currently have?

I don't mean obsolete things like "Davy Crockett", but current bombs.
Click to expand...

Modern nuke's are variable yield, you literally dial in how big you want the explosion to be. The B61 can be as low as .3 kilotons (relatively tiny) and the big B83 can go down to the "low kiloton range".
 
B

Bronx-Man

Banned
kayzai said:
Why the destructive nature of mankind?

I was just reading up about this bomb only to discover that there is a FOAB that is even 4 times more powerful!

These are WMDs IMHO.
Click to expand...

They aren't WMDs when we shoot them, then they're freedom stabilizers.
 
K

Keasar

Member
Latvian Hitman said:
I dislike our current president as much as the next guy, but you're glossing over reports that this strike has been in the works for months, dating back to the end of the Obama administration.
Click to expand...

I did read that, and I would have said the same about Obama. I liked his domestic ideas but his military plans was scary with the drone strikes, this would have not improved that opinion.

In the end though Trump still approved this. Though I am surprised he did since it was from the Obama administration, seems like he is trying to take credit which is expected.
 
T

theignoramus

Member
Im not comfortable with turning multiple square miles of an environment into a smouldering ruin, just to kill cavemen. What happens when ISIS build another elaborate system of caves? Do we systematically turn Afghanistan, one square mileage at a time, into a crater zone?
This reminds me of "deforestation" in Vietnam. It was terrible policy then, and it still is now.
I supported the attack on that Syrian airfield, but this is excessive.
 
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