...this MOP strike had several bombs with the same aim point and a timer setting for simultaneous detonation. Good results will be difficult.
WW2 testing showed hard crystallized limestone was a pain for semi-armor piercing bombs dropped from 16,000 feet to penetrate.
3/6
Limestone isn't particularly hard compared to a number of volcanic and metamorphic rocks.
When the WW2 British scientist Barnes Wallace's Tallboy and Grand Slam were tested against steel reinforced concrete, the results were not good.
4/6
The Tallboy and Grand Slam broke up when they were moving too fast or the tail wacked the concrete laterally while going through.
5/6
The GBU-57/B MOP is built with those WW2 lessons plus the benefit of Defense Threat Reduction Agency basic & applied research starting in the late 1990's for deep penetrating bombs to destroy WMD's.
It still may not be enough for Fordow w/o special intel & tactics.
6/6
@threadreaderapp unroll please
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Small drones fitted with flux compression generator (FCG) non-nuclear electromagnetic pulse (NNEMP) would be capable of zorching the electronics of a Cold War era ICBM physics packages, RV and midcourse bus inside a silo by landing on the missile hatch and going bang.
2/3
A drone carried FCG (figure below) can emit a pulse similar to the E1 EMP from a nuclear weapon, at a higher than 50 KV/meter Cold War EMP protection standards.
It is a measure of the "Eek! A nuke!" phobias of US Flag ranks that this threat has been ignored since 2018.
A lot of Western military officers at all levels have been vociferously denying the systematic Russian use of Chemical weapons since the siege of Mariupol in 2022.
I expect this Western military delusion to continue.
I have been beating up on the Field Artillery crowd on X for literally years over the rapid firepower growth curve of drones compared to tube artillery.
Drones do cluster munitions far more accurately than tube artillery.
And the shortages of Ukrainian artillery shells through out the Russo-Ukrainian War has meant drone surveillance was the prerequisite for shooting any tube artillery at all, be it cluster munition or unitary.