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From: bxr307@csc.anu.edu.au
Newsgroups: sci.military
Subject: Re: Hardened structures.
Message-ID: <1991Jan24.032832.18708@cbnews.att.com>
Date: 24 Jan 91 03:28:32 GMT
References: <1991Jan23.033625.1497@cbnews.att.com>
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From: bxr307@csc.anu.edu.au
In article <1991Jan23.033625.1497@cbnews.att.com>, scott@sting.Berkeley.EDU (Scott Silvey) writes:
> 
> 
> From: scott@sting.Berkeley.EDU (Scott Silvey)
>  I think that they used to call 1000lb bombs in WWII
>   "blockbusters", implying they would destroy all buildings on a single city
>   block (I don't know if this is the literal affect though).

	Your out by a factor of ten.  A 10,000 lb high capacity bomb (thin 
cased, designed to explode without penetrating deep into the ground) was 
called the blockbuster.   It was designed by Barnes Wallis who believed that
bombs had been previously designed to destroy primarily through splinter
damage rather than blast.

	What is really needed for the destruction of the hardened shelters in
use by the Iraqis is a new "Tallboy" "Earthquake" bomb in the 22,000 pound
class.  Again the "Tallboy" was designed by Barnes Wallis.  These weapons were
remarkably successful against the U-Boat shelters employed by the Germans in
WWII to protect their submarines.   I would imagine that an aircraft shelter of
the type I have seen displayed on the idiot box with only 2m thick roofs would
be much easier to crack than the U-Boat pens which had up to 5m thick roofs.
	If a laser guidance system was mated to such a weapon, its accuracy
would be considerably increased and you'd be sure of hitting close to the
target.


Brian Ross