Thread by @drbairdonline

DISINFO ALERT! You may have seen reports that what blew up Beirut on Aug 4 was a THERMOBARIC bomb. NOT! Disinfo agents for decades have propagandized thermobarics aka FUEL-AIR EXPLOSIVES to explain "inexplicably" huge explosions. But FAEs simply DO NOT BLAST CRATERS!
1/
Thread

This video nicely shows how Fuel Air Explosives (FAE) work. Unlike Nuclear Explosives (NE) & High Explosives (HE), FAEs use O2 from surrounding air. As the narrator says & I think you will agree, “The results are spectacular!” But did this FAE blast a CRATER? NO WAY!
2/

Even largest HE bombs in US arsenal - generating much greater shock waves than FAEs - don't blast craters just a few ft off the ground! Here's 10,000 lb M121 (using TNT) w/fuze extender in Vietnam detonating 3 ft aboveground. Did you see the GREAT Wilson cloud? But NO CRATER!
3/

USAF in Vietnam used M121 & 15,000 lb BLU-82 (top) to clear helicopter landing pads in dense jungle to maximize destruction at ground level while leaving NO CRATER. Even current largest HE bomb in US arsenal 21,000 lb MOAB (bottom) bursting ~6 ft off ground leaves NO CRATER.
4/

Now to be technically correct, I should say NO CONVENTIONAL CRATER. These "airburst bombs" do actually compress the ground below them slightly creating a wide & shallow COMPRESSION CRATER ~1 foot in depth. But for all USAF purposes, there is essentially NO CRATER.
5/

A "truck bomb" is essentially an “airburst bomb” like MOAB. US Special Forces loaded these two light trucks with 1000 lb ANFO each & then filmed detonation w/high-speed cameras showing a clear air gap between vehicle chassis & the road in both cases
6/
web.archive.org/web/2005120808…

As discussed in another thread, it is quite possible to determine exactly how big a crater (conventional /compression) that an explosive device (NE/HE) produces. This works just as well for explosive devices belowground, aboveground or on the surface.
7/

https://twitter.com/drbairdonline/status/1294290050591555585

For example, you can calculate using Fig 4.3 that a device w/yield 19 kT TNT equivalent detonated at HOB=100 ft would produce a crater 9.65 ft deep. These are the numbers for Trinity test (July 1945) which had a measured depth of 10 ft & just happens to be pt 14 (lower left)!
8/

Although the comp figure to Fig 4.3 for crater radius is still classified, other figures show Trinity (pt 14) is clearly in the "compression crater" region where as HOB increases, depth barely changes while radius increases dramatically & in fact is difficult to measure.
9/

What about the Russian 44-ton FOAB? It's thermobaric & the biggest nonnuclear bomb in the world! Surely FOAB can blast a crater? While there's still great mystery abt FOAB, the only conclusion has to be, if it detonates a few feet off the ground, then the answer is NO CRATER!
10/