[tt] [silk] How to solve a problem.

[Eugen Leitl]

----- Forwarded message from "J. Andrew Rogers" <andrew at ceruleansystems.com> -----

From: "J. Andrew Rogers" <andrew at ceruleansystems.com>
Date: Sun, 22 Jun 2008 12:36:10 -0700
To: silklist at lists.hserus.net
Subject: Re: [silk] How to solve a problem.
X-Mailer: Apple Mail (2.924)
Reply-To: silklist at lists.hserus.net


On Jun 22, 2008, at 11:21 AM, Gautam John wrote:
>"We no longer accept the term thermobaric [for the AGM-114N] as there
>is no internationally agreed definition," said an MoD spokesman. "We
>call it an enhanced blast weapon."


Technically, they have something of a point, as there are a couple  
different kinds of explosive systems to which this name is sometimes  
applied but with different properties and there does seem to be some  
improper conflation of the two.

Most of the really nasty (side-)effects attributed to thermobaric  
weapons, outside of the usual damage explosives cause, are from the  
class of organic Fuel-Air Explosive (FAE) systems developed during the  
Cold War.  The opponents of the AGM-114N are using peak values and  
models from these types of systems as the core elements of their  
arguments.

However, the AGM-114N is a metal-augmented explosive, a technology  
that has been in use since at least WW2. The main function of the  
metal augmentation is to change the overpressure pulse shape so that  
naturally blast resistant construction (e.g. heavy masonry building or  
large steel ship) is more likely to suffer extended structural failure  
for a given charge mass.  The mechanism by which it alters the pulse  
characteristics are similar to the pure FAE systems (same basic  
principles) but the construction is different because it is modifying  
the main charge rather than *being* the main charge.


The military alternative is to just use bigger explosive charges less  
efficient for the task, which will have a larger collateral damage  
footprint. If I was on the receiving end, I'm not sure whether I would  
care if I was killed by a large inefficient explosive or a small  
efficient one, though my neighbors might.

J. Andrew Rogers


----- End forwarded message -----
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Eugen* Leitl <a href="http://leitl.org">leitl</a> http://leitl.org
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