Re: GUNS/MILITARY/BAD THINGS: TBW vs FAMs, was Re: Super-GUN!:Wired News

From: Michael M. Butler (mmb@spies.com)
Date: Fri Mar 28 2003 - 16:28:27 MST

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    On Fri, 28 Mar 2003 16:57:31 EST, <Spudboy100@aol.com> wrote:

    > We'll se how practical these weapons are. Will they be used in the Bagdad
    > battle? But if workable, these weapons seem to be effectively
    > revolutionary in their goal. Why lug or manufacture Artillary, when you
    > can possess a super mortar? It also makes a terror weapon (at least to my
    > imagination) all the more possible. These weapons, if not hyped, are as
    > big a change in fighting capability, as the introduction of air-ground
    > and air to air missles.

    <Re-donning my Lorrey mask>

    If the Baghdad battle is still going on in June, they might be. Or the
    Syrians might have already snuck in some of the FSU TBW stuff and US/UK
    might have to face it sooner than that. :| :\ :|

    They are not as effective in open spaces (no cavity for the convection cell
    to evacuate), and I wonder about weather; and they (in simple man-portable
    bunker buster/M209 form) won't plow through stuff like tank armor or honest
    concrete bunkers. At right-angles to foot or two of dirt, or into a
    concrete slab building, sure they'll penetrate. In enclosed spaces, they
    are kind of the small-scale-conventional analog to neutron bombs--kill
    people and leave the filing cabinets only singed. Or so they are
    advertised. In general weapons-effect terms, I think of it more as a
    variable-geometry concussion grenade you can't duck from. Or a lung-
    rupturing standoff flamethrower. Yes, it's not a pleasant prospect. And
    yes, somebody can still sneak up and bash you in the back of the head with
    a rock while you're squinting through the reticle.

    Re: "terrorist" uses (not to deny that the weapons themselve are pretty
    terifying all by themselves):

    As with most miltech, the easiest terror use is based on stealing it or
    divertng it, not reinventing it. That said, the primary ingredents of the
    US FAMs are pretty much public. No, I'm not naming them here. They are
    nasty (toxic) chemicals to begin with. Not sure about the thermobaric
    stuff. The remaining mysteries are dispersal and ignition, and that seems
    to me to be a matter of a few months, maybe a year, tops, of messing around
    in the vicinity of desert caves with a milling machine and a set of
    chemical-supply and surplus-store catalogs handy--and a DHL drop. Having a
    few unexpended/dud rounds could shorten that time quite a bit, as long as
    you were lucky or clever.



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