From: Michael M. Butler (mmb@spies.com)
Date: Fri Mar 28 2003 - 14:21:44 MST
I'm going to go Lorrey for a minute: ;)
The Russians, just by the way, are reported to have been fielding a two-
shot disposable thermobaric weapon for some time now. They coined the term,
and some of the translated documents I've read seem to indicate that the
Russians make a distinction between thermobarics and fuel-air munitions
like the ones the US has employed in the pre-Afghanistan past. Not sure if
that's just NIH at work. (Not Invented Here, not National Institutes of
Health).
From the "baric" part of the name, I am guessing it has to do with the
creation of a convection cell to enhance the kill effect, whereas FAMs, I
deduce/recollect, are area effect, just go boom and explode or fry the
lungs, eardrums, etc. of anyone unfortunate enough to have breathed in the
mix.
On Fri, 28 Mar 2003 14:51:13 EST, <Spudboy100@aol.com> wrote:
> When a Gun Is More Than a Gun
>
>
>
> <A
> HREF="http://wired.com/news/conflict/0,2100,58094,00.html">http://wired.com/news/conflict/0,2100,58094,00.html>
>
> Thermo-Baric rifles don't kill, people do!! ;-)
>
>
> By <A HREF="http://wired.com/news/feedback/mail/1,2330,91,00.html">Noah
> Shachtman</A>
>
>
> 02:00 AM Mar. 20, 2003 PT
>
>
>
> <<PICATINNY ARSENAL, New Jersey -- It is among the most horrific weapons
> in any army's collection: the thermobaric bomb, a fearsome explosive that
> sets fire to the air above its target, then sucks the oxygen out of
> anyone unfortunate enough to have lived through the initial blast.
>
> Last year, the U.S. military used such weapons for the first time in
> combat, to incinerate suspected underground al-Qaeda hideouts in
> Afghanistan. In the next few months, the U.S. Army will start putting
> this sweeping power in the hands of individual soldiers.
>
> "This significantly increases the firepower that can be put in a single
> person's hands," said Reuben Brigety, an arms researcher at <A
> HREF="http://www.hrw.org/">Human Rights Watch</A>. "I'm not aware of any
> other conventional munitions used by a single person that can have the
> same destructive power."
>
> Thermobaric grenades and mini-rockets were among dozens of current and
> future munitions the military demonstrated this week at <A
> HREF="http://www.pica.army.mil/Public/">Picatinny Arsenal</A>, the Army's
> lone research-and-development center for armaments and ammunition.
>
> According to Picatinny officials, thermobaric ammunition will be tested
> this spring with the <A
> HREF="http://www.dtic.mil/ndia/infantry/burk.pdf">Bunker Defeat</A>
> rocket launcher -- a shoulder-mounted, disposable system that was first
> deployed in Afghanistan. It'll also be tried out with the <A
> HREF="http://www.hqmc.usmc.mil/factfile.nsf/7e931335d515626a8525628100676e0c/d50a120f00de543d8525627b006b1fec?OpenDocument">M203</A>,
>
>
> the grenade launcher American grunts have used for decades.>>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
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