MOAB (mother of all bombs) dropped for first time.

Yes, the very corrupt dangerous VA is yet another deadly USG T Rex spawned by the very corrupt very bipartisan ruling political class.
Nevertheless, the VA did become especially deadly under Obama.

 

What would happen to a C-130 with a 11 ton bomb trying to fly right over a target with air defenses?

 

No it didn't.. I was always poor. Lots of unhappy physicians and whistleblowers.

 

Afghan officials: Nearly 100 ISIS jihadis, including four commanders, killed in MOAB strike

 

What would happen if the air defenses were targeted first, removed by appropriate munitions which we CAN do then send the bunker buster?


It was a PR move seriously. Silly and u needed. Trump needs to stop caving to the MSM

 

Do you also quarter back on Mondays after a game? The woulda, coulda's are wide and extensive on what might have been done. The fact remains that the MOAB was employed and successfully used to take out the tunnel complexes that would have taken months and a lot of casualties to clear. Period. General Nicholson made the right call.

 

Which does not contradict anything in my post.

 

You might try reading more than one post in a thread before calling someone an armchair quarterback. My post you quoted was in response to someone thinking a bunker buster was not viable for the Syrian Airbase.

I have posts in this thread agreeing with you. So.. What's worse an armchair quarterback or someone who just reads the last post takes it out of context then talks out of their rear orifice?

 

IOW, it would have requires sustained air action over a base defended by Russian air defense.
Would that have been the smart cheap thing to do?

 

In the case of the Afghan drop, no Americans were injured or killed and the only casualties were the enemy. Just imagine not only were the tunnels cleared but all the IED's in a two mile radius exploded in sympathy.

 

I thought the blast zone was a half mile radious?

Either way, it was a good use of hardware.

 

Thanks

 

Yes, and all of that done for what amounts to chump change - for the USG.

 

"But the ultra-heavy explosive – equal to 11 tons of TNT with a blast radius of 1.6km on each side – could potentially cause many civilian casualties".
"Mark Kimmitt, a retired brigadier general in the US army and former deputy assistant secretary of defense, downplayed the use of the GBU-43, saying it is “just another tool the military has”.
“It allows us to go after deeply buried and hardened structures. It’s good use against tunnels and it’s also good use because it’s going to set off IEDs in the area,” he told Al Jazeera".

 

FOX is reporting the enemy confirmed killed is approaching 100 with many more expected to be found in the rubble.

 

Half mile radius - 1 mile diameter. The less destructive shock wave beyond the kills zone would probably trigger IEDs much further away from the center.

 

Thanks Fellas. I've been reading so much about the sucker, that I confuse myself.

 

The tomahawk attack was a message, not a serious attempt to destroy the air base.

If we had wanted to destroy it, we could have turned it into a big crater.

 

......

 

Different methods are required to achieve different objectives in different situations.

If you would like a place to be level, a big, big bomb is certainly one way to make it level, but you are very likely to end up with a big, big hole.

 

It's a battlefield weapon, available to commanders, if they think its the right tool for the job. I'm not going to second guess them. These tunnels are difficult to deal with, they are filled with weapons caches, though these are probably pretty much sterilized at the moment.

 

There's something about the MOAB.. Maybe I didn't understand... Seems to me that the plane has to get out of the way because of the concussive effect.

 

Indeed. Its deployment had been anticipated for quite some time:

It's a continuation of the US policy in Afghanistan under Bush and Obama. Not much has changed in over 15 years.

 

Didn't Trump say that the generals didn't know their asses from a hole in the ground? There are cheaper ways to kill people. And then the dummies allowed the terrorists back into the area to get the bodies. No wonder the war has been going on for 16 years.

 

To some degree we have that now with the. Veterans Choice program. If we cannot get a Vet in for what he/she needs in 30 days they can go to a civilian doc or facility. If we do not have the treatment the Vet needs they go to a civilian. If a Vet lives more than 40 miles away from his closest facility he goes to a civilian one.

Maybe some things that are not directly related to a Veteran's war injury can be better done in a civilian facility. Other needs such as TBI - Traumatic Brain Injury, prosthesis, PTSD, and other other conditions or affects of injuries.

I woukd say that a reliance on the private sector for certain things may be better but I would not dismantle the VA or privatize it.