Tuesday, December 09, 2003

What happened to the Mother of All Bombs?

As I mentioned earlier, you're about to be very safe.

As planned at present, the MOAB/B-2 combination would give global reach for this hugely destructive bomb, but there are plans to do much more than this – partly in response to the fact that a conventional strategic bomber such as the B-2 can take twenty hours or more to reach a distant target.

The planners also envisage the development of pilot-less hypersonic bombers that can reach speeds of 6,000 miles (9,600 kilometres) an hour, flying more than a third of the way round the world in 90 minutes. In a little-noticed provision slipped into the Fiscal Year 2004 Defense Authorization Bill , both houses of Congress voted without discussion to instruct Donald Rumsfeld to “establish an integrated plan for developing, deploying and sustaining a prompt global strike capability in the armed forces�.

These plans form only part of a wider strategic objective in the United States, one termed “full spectrum dominance�, the ability to command at all levels of military activity and in all potential theatres of war.

... As in Iraq, [however], the illusion of dominance based on strike aircraft, missiles and other instruments of a military superpower on a global scale may prove to be comforting in theory but in practice utterly fantastical.

At present, however, the Massive Ordnance Air Burst bomb, prompt global strike, directed energy weapons and other new technologies will continue to be developed, even as control in countries such as Iraq and Afghanistan proves more and more difficult. In time there may be a reappraisal. But that is hardly likely now, and certainly not with the current political leadership in the Pentagon and the White House.
  article

You really ought to read this article. Quite interesting and informative about our weaponry, the ideas about what we think we need, and the testing of these weapons of mass destruction super weapons.

....but hey, do what you want....you will anyway.

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