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From: amichiel@rodan.acs.syr.edu (Allen J Michielsen)
Newsgroups: sci.military
Subject: Re: Big Bombs in PG
Message-ID: <1991Feb18.052641.9739@cbnews.att.com>
Date: 18 Feb 91 05:26:41 GMT
References: <1991Feb15.065559.9255@cbnews.att.com>
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From: amichiel@rodan.acs.syr.edu (Allen J Michielsen)
In Article:<> tohall@helios.lerc.nasa.gov (Dave Hall (Sverdrup)) writes:
>From: tohall@helios.lerc.nasa.gov (Dave Hall (Sverdrup))
>Saw this info in a local article:
>The U.S is using the largest bomb in the arsenal - the 15,000-pound 
>"BLU-82" - in recent allied air attacks on Iraq as part of an intensified 
>effort to shake enemy troop morale before the expected allied ground ...
>     Warplanes began dropping the massive bomb, also known as a "daisy 
>cutter", last week and are expected to continue during the ongoing phase of 
>softening up Iraqi troops for the anticipated U.S. ground assault. 
>     Supposedly, the huge bombs are being used for their "shock value" in 

  Don't take this to task, but you entirely avoided the tactical purpose
of the daisy cutter in this situation. It is NOT entended as a 'demorilization'
weapon (although it is a nice side effect...).  I don't have the exact number,
but Iraq has (reported) laid mines in massive quantity (approaching 5 billion
or some nearby fantastically huge number).  In quantity, some of these anti
personnel devices can cost as little as $4.52 (us) {source pentagon/abc}.
Many of the mines were given to iraq by saudia arabia, kuwait, iran, england,
jordan, and the  U.S.. The main tactical purpose for using daisy cutterss,
in this situation, is as a very fast mine sweeper.  The ground forces can 
(in theory I guess) then very rapidly move forward with total disregard to
potential mines by following the crater lines.
al




-- 
Al. Michielsen, Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering, Syracuse University
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