I don't think that the MOAB killed anyone.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

There's no sign we need more of them.

[Jehanne]

There's no sign we need more of them.

Yeah, I read that Trump & Friends may be bombing North Korea sometime this weekend.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

There's no sign we need more of them.

Yeah, I read that Trump & Friends may be bombing North Korea sometime this weekend.

The completely irrational I leave to those specialized in predicting it.

[Thumpalumpacus]

Actually, the weapon's main threat is the blast wave, which doesn't come into effect nearly as well in the wide-open. Confined quarters -- like a tunnel complex, if you target (one of) its openings -- make a pretty good funnel for the shock wave. Not to mention the oxygen that the combustion uses up.

I don't think that they hit one of the openings, of which, no doubt, there are many.  From what I read, the thing exploded mid-air, hundreds of feet off the ground.

Even a few hundred feet above an opening, the tunnel can and will channelize the part of the shock wave it "sees" -- which can itself be deadly. These things are smart, so hitting inside your CEP isn't that difficult.

Of course, I don't know that that is what happened; this is just speculation on my part.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

Actually, the weapon's main threat is the blast wave, which doesn't come into effect nearly as well in the wide-open. Confined quarters -- like a tunnel complex, if you target (one of) its openings -- make a pretty good funnel for the shock wave. Not to mention the oxygen that the combustion uses up.

I don't think that they hit one of the openings, of which, no doubt, there are many.  From what I read, the thing exploded mid-air, hundreds of feet off the ground.

---

We've used ONE of the MOAB's build in '03/'04. No demand for more right now. 

There isn't always skullduggery at work. 

Except on the Internet, where it's the only explanation.

I don't know what the expiration date for one of those is; obviously, someone needs to build it, a defense contractor who needs to get paid on a regular basis.

You need to read better sources. It was an air-burst device, designed that way, same at the bombs that hit Hiroshima and Nagasaki. And they were designed to burst one hundred feet in the air, IIRC. 

And you're still going on about the Military-Industrial complex?

[The Grand Nudger]

The misunderstanding seems to centered around the munitions detonation height.  The reason we do that, is to allow blast time to accelerate before it reaches target.  Otherwise, some potential force is wasted/lost.  That, is "the physics" of it.  These bombs don;t lose applied force over that distance, they gain it.  Detonating the munition in the mouth of the access tunnels would have less effect, not more. You could envision it as a sidescrolling map of a tunnel network, wherein there is a range of "too close" -"just right", and "too deep. What they try to do is match the "just right" range to overlap with intel regarding the tunnel.

You might doubt that the range of "just right" was sufficient for the entirety of a given tunnel, I suppose....though it doesn't actually matter that much - collapsing significant portions of the tunnel and particularly it's access -will- incur casualties..either directly or indirectly.

[Jehanne]

I don't think that they hit one of the openings, of which, no doubt, there are many.  From what I read, the thing exploded mid-air, hundreds of feet off the ground.

---

I don't know what the expiration date for one of those is; obviously, someone needs to build it, a defense contractor who needs to get paid on a regular basis.

You need to read better sources. It was an air-burst device, designed that way, same at the bombs that hit Hiroshima and Nagasaki. And they were designed to burst one hundred feet in the air, IIRC. 

And you're still going on about the Military-Industrial complex?

Oh, I agree that a nuclear weapon could do a great deal of damage!  However, this weapon only released 1/10th of 1 percent of the Hiroshima bomb:

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world...176770.cms

And, even the Hiroshima bomb did not leave much of a crater:

https://www.quora.com/Does-an-atomic-bom...e-a-crater

And, so, my question remains, "What was Trump's real motive in using this weapon?"

---

The misunderstanding seems to centered around the munitions detonation height.  The reason we do that, is to allow blast time to accelerate before it reaches target.  Otherwise, some potential force is wasted/lost.  That, is "the physics" of it.  These bombs don;t lose applied force over that distance, they gain it.  Detonating the munition in the mouth of the access tunnels would have less effect, not more.

I just don't think that an above-ground explosion against a below-ground target makes much sense, from a physics POV.  As for "gaining force over distance" that would be equivalent to saying that a bullet gains speed after leaving the muzzle of a gun (neglecting its vertical drop, of course!), and that is false.

[GUBU]

Edit: @Isis, why put the flag of a racist, genocidal near dictatorship in your signature? It does not put the UK in a good light.

Why do you think? And what exactly do you base that on? I know you're a Palestinian supporter but come on dude, calling it a "racist", "genocidal" and "near dictatorship" is a little over the top.

I consider Israel to be racist because it discriminates in its laws based on racial categories. Arab citizens of Israel don't have the same rights as Jewish citizens of Israel, if you immigrate into Israel you get more rights quicker if you are jewish than if you are any other religion. If that's not racist, nothing is.

I consider Israel genocidal because of what it is doing in the lands of Palestine it has occupied since 1967, and what it does to non-jewish citizens of Israel when it wants to displace them from their lands and give it to jewish citizens.

I consider Israel near-dictatorial because it is getting harder for those who dissent from the idea of Eretz Ysrael to have their voices heard, from loss of funding, vicious and pervasive online bullying, official obstructionism and censorship. When two former heads of Shin Bet (itself not known for being too enamoured of democracy or the rule of law) come out and condemn Netenyahoo's current government for instituting a creeping dictatorship, you bet your arse I am paying attention.

[The Grand Nudger]

I just don't think that an above-ground explosion against a below-ground target makes much sense, from a physics POV. 

You must be using a novel sense of "makes sense".  I think that you're speaking intuitively.  The ground does offer cover from indirect fire, that's why we build bunkers...but that protection is not absolute or uniform.  The bomb in question is a big fuckin bomb precisely -because- the ground does offer protection.  If it were a smaller bomb, or detonated at the wrong height, it would have less penetrative ability.  

As for "gaining force over distance" that would be equivalent to saying that a bullet gains speed after leaving the muzzle of a gun (neglecting its vertical drop, of course!), and that is false.

Bullets -do- gain speed from the time that the blast cap is struck until some distance x, variable by caliber and load..which sometimes does and sometimes doesn't exceed the length of the barrel....depending on the length of the barrel......that's actually a key concern in barrel and round design.  Ideally, the barrel is as long or slightly longer than the acceleration window..in order to deliver all usable force to a single point - accuracy.  

Think about the corollary.  If you doubt that bullets accelerate, or that blast waves accelerate..you are are indicating your belief that the speed at which either moves is -instantaneously- achieved at detonation.......

[Gawdzilla Sama]

I suspect Jehanne is just having fun with us. Or has never been near a serious explosion.