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Subject:
More Small Stuff
SYSOP
10/14/2014 5:32:09 AM
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Blacktail
10/15/2014 6:49:42 PM
The premise of this trend is "Accuracy > Power", and this isn't the first time this mistake was made.
Remember the AGM-12 Bullpup missile? The guiding premise (pun intended) was that a precision guided munition with only a 250lb warhead was powerful enough to bust a steel and concrete suspension bridge, because it was accurate enough to hit the target in "just the right spot". It was tried on the Than Hoa Bridge, and
http://dzampini.boom.ru/Vietnam/TheDragonJaws.htm
">didn't work.
That fallacy was process-duplicated in the AGM-62 Walleye (actually a guided bomb, despite it's designation suggesting it was a guided missile). They tried it on the same target,
with the same result
.
That forced the development of the much larger AGM-62C, nicknamed "Fat Albert", but the result
was still the same
.
It took 2000lb and 3000lb laser-guided bombs to finally sever the Than Hoa Bridge... which was repaired and back in service soon after, forcing 13 subsequent raids (that all failed to sever the bridge again). Oh, and there was a river fording less than a half-mile downstream, that happened to be carrying most vehicle traffic through all of this. And it was well within range of the USS New Jersey's 16" guns and the 8" guns of several Heavy Cruisers, but gunfire strikes against it were forbidden... but I digress.
Let's also call that combat results in recent wars with previous guided bombs of 500lb to 2000lb capacity forced the development of the GBU-28, a 5000lb guided bomb --- or that limitations with *this* weapon have forced the development of the colossal 43000lb GBU-43 Massive Ordnance Penetrator guided bomb.
Then we have the fact that
operational experience
has proven
unguided bombs
to
substantially more accurate and effective
than guided bombs.
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WarNerd
10/16/2014 12:52:36 AM
Then we have the fact that
operational experience
has proven
unguided bombs
to
substantially more accurate and effective
than guided bombs.
All involve cases where the aircraft deploying conventional munitions either could not hang around long enough to guide munitions and/or were not qualified to use them. That is hardly proof.
The primary driving force behind small smart munitions isn’t the idea that Accuracy>Power, but that you have a small area of collateral with small warhead and accurate delivery it is easier to get permission to attack. Yes, a 2000lb dumb bomb can do the job, if the target will park itself a mile from any possible civilians and wait while the request works its way up and down the chain of command, possibly as far as the Whitehouse for something that big.
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keffler25
10/16/2014 10:59:03 AM
Weapon to fit target. Plus need to correct some inaccurate (as usual) Blacktail history.
In the case of the Than Hoa Bridge, you wanted to smash the pilings, not the pylons or the spans.
Don't blame the principle of airpower for the specific incompetent targeteers who assigned wrong ordnance and methods to the structure desired destroyed.
Once the right bombs were used (earthquake bombs) into the pilings, that bridge was dropped and stayed dropped until AFTER the war. Same for that !@#$%^&*() ford crossing.That's what air dropped MINES are used for in rivers. (Which were successfully used [late] but then again blame the targeteers.)
And while the Than Hoa Bridge proved stubborn through the 65-68 time period that BT selectively uses for his 'history'; most of the other bridges that the USN hammered during that period, dropped and stayed dropped. The Douma bridge being a famous example. The Than Hoa exception does NOT prove the rule.
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HeavyD
10/19/2014 5:05:06 PM
Looks like mission planners will have an embarrassment of riches:
1. Guidance kits for 500 - 2000 dumb bombs
2. Upgraded Mavericks with warheads up to 300 lbs
3. Small Diameter bombs
4. Brimstones and regular old Hellfires
5. Guided Zuni and Hydra rockets
6. Griffins
7. Viper Strikes
8. G-Claw
I'm sure I'm missing some, but golly the list is getting pretty long, ain't it?
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keffler25
10/20/2014 12:42:07 AM
Variety? Maybe. But hardly enough quantity. The PRC target list has 400,000 items.
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