(April 14, 2017 at 2:05 pm)popeyespappy Wrote: I was just wondering to myself if they didn't do this as test before trying one on North Korea's underground nuclear test site. Then I remembered the delivery system is a cargo plane and decided that wouldn't be anybody's first choice for a preemptive strike.
There was improvised bunker buster developed during the first gulf war that would be more appropriate. Basically the air force found a couple of old army 8 inch heavy howitzer barrels in a scrap yard, filled the barrel with explosives, welded a solid steel cone on one end to aid penetration, and a set of fins on the other, and turned it into an explosive filled heavy metal dart with a laser guidance unit at the front end.
They then dropped the weapon using a F-111 on some super hardened Iraqi bunker and destroyed it.
The entire process from when the air force discovered these impenetrable bunkers to when they finished the improvised weapon, shipped it to Iraq and dropped it took 2 weeks.
I believe the clinton administration requested the air force develop a real bomb matching the penetration characteristics of this improvised dart for potential use against super hardened chemical and nuclear weapon bunkers in rogue states. It was called heavy ordinance penetrator. Don't know if they are still in service.
