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- nudasveritas, on 10/12/2007, -0/+8in light on these comments i think this needs to be said.
"Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed. This world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children. This is not a way of life at all in any true sense. Under the clouds of war, it is humanity hanging on a cross of iron."
~Dwight D. Eisenhower - headzoo, on 10/12/2007, -1/+5Hmm, I was in Fallujah and watching these things go off... they are not as impressive as the pictures and story make out.
Also the building walls weren't our targets, we wanted them to go inside the building (through a window) because the heat they release when exploding will cook anything/anyone inside the entire house, regardless of which room the rocket exploded in.
- Semper Fi - tenchi71, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4Man... I was an M-47 Dragon Gunner back in the day (Ooh Rah 2/9!). As an 0351 I was also trained on how to use and deploy the SMAW. That was one loud mofo when you shot it.... but never really had much oompf at impact. I guess now it does... I wouldn't mind firing off a couple of those NE rounds today.
"Regardless, "AMERICA, ***** YEAH!"
Hehehe... - JeffS, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4Weren't thermobaric weapons outlawed by the Khitomer Accords?
- ghaze, on 10/12/2007, -2/+5lollerskates:
When I was a young marine, I was ashamed of the gutless liberals who ran our country.
I consider myself a libertarian and I'm well aware why we have the right to keep and
bear arms. If you think that a weapon like this in anyway hinders the ability of our
armed population to throw out an illegal, tyrannical government, you're an idiot, and
you've obviously never seen what a tank or gunship can do to a crowd.(or a mortar,
a .50 cal or a muzzle loading cannon firing case shot for that matter)
I think you and possibly the government will probably be surprised if they try to use
the professional armed forces to put down a popular uprising in this country. I'm
pretty sure they would have to resort to the use of their masked, black uniformed,
alphabet agency troops. Why do you think the people who are interested in taking our
personal liberties are so interested in gun control? It's a matter of numbers. An
armed population can only be governed, never ruled.
I feel that any weapon that helps to bring a quicker end to the current hostilities
a welcome addition to our arsenal. If it saves American lives, I feel its use to be
quite justified. The fundamentalist Islamics have shown themselves to be barbarians.
They started this with a cowardly attack against "innocent civilians".
Let them reap the whirlwind. I don't feel sorry for them, no more than my grandfather,
a submariner in the pacific, felt sorry for the Japanese.
To quote a WWII saying "We're in it, lets win it"
While I will assuredly die, possibly by "state execution", I doubt if it would be for
any reason you would understand. Dumbass - hammerattack, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Brutal? BRUTAL? An HB round goes off near you, it's over quick and painlessly. Compare and contrast to being turned into bloody swiss cheese by an M249 SAW. The thing is, getting riddled with a SAW doesn't kill you right away. The 5.56mm NATO round pokes nice clean rapier like holes. Unless you take a headshot, you die from bleedout after a few agonizing minutes of wondering why it's cold, and you can't feel your feet.
War is hell godammit. Get it over with as fast as you can if you want to save lives. - Boondoggle, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Not really new tech. It is a fuel-air bomb. Bin around since GW1. Major difference is that now they've got them mounted on a ground based weapon.
basically it is just a shell filed with a liquid propellant that gets aerosol-ed on target. Could be gasoline for all I know. Combines with the air and a spark and kablam. Kind of like a grain elevator explosion without any wheat dust.
If I had one of those it would really change the balance of power in my neighborhood. - JohnTomato, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2"the marines are fascist."
let's you and i take a walk in the woods. hobbit county. i'll pay for your airfare.
bugger i'm weary of the ignorant and the un-informed.
-J.T. - jjb123, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2
RobCowie: That is what the US does. You can't just relly of infantry though. We couldn't have won WWII with just infantry (Atomic Bomb), The Atom bomb saved allot of allied lives. - elpayo, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2BFG-9000 - That's a better name for it.
- SBinc, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2sucks to be on the recieving end of one of these buggers.
as long as enemy countries/factions don't get their hands on them. i still ain't joinin .........jk
jRotc c/2nd lT - TwoSlick, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2It's funny how people balk at stuff like this. It's all about scale. Back in the day, whole fleets of aircraft would blindly drop bombs over populated cities, hoping they would hit important infrastructure. Today's US military is more oriented towards focused strikes, and anything that can allow our troops to take out a target without having to carpetbomb an entire neighborhood is just fine with me.
The ratio of civialian / combatant kills is much better today than in the past. Just remember that. - zediker, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2There is nothing 'controversial' about this. Yes its an explosive, it hurts people, and thats not a great thing. But it is no different than what would be calling a highly accurate artillery strike. Its just portable, and I doubt its very light, so you are not going to see soldiers use these as you would in a quake deathmatch.
- blackjack75, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Wake me up when then can find a way to instantly _BUILD_ something. We've had means of destroying buildings for quite a while. So what.. is this cheaper? Human life isn't worth anything anyway these days, any weapon is becoming too expensive. Let's revert back to good old knives. It takes some time but you can actually kill a lot of people for a _very_ fair price! Yeah! That's a bargain! Go for it!
- Schmitty, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2By the look of the blog the link refers to, this looks like a controversial weapon. Most of the posts sound like former leathernecks or military otherwise, but have posted intelligent insights on the weapon's use in war. A very good read, ++Digg.
- Reddog_x2000, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1It's just another tool. Admittedly, a pretty damn cool one. But, still just a tool. It's good if it protects the people I like and takes out the ones I don't. I'm sure it'll be used for both purposes before long.
- Krisalis78, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Brutal Digg!!! ++
Militarily Critical Technologies List
http://www.dtic.mil/mctl/ - yensed, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Scary *****.
- wildbillyboy, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I have GOT to get me one of these!
- avatarpalin, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Yeah.... that is brilliant... Can't wait to buy that in Wallmart!!!!
....only a matter of time John... only a matter of time - buryme, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Why are they still using bulldozers and wrecking balls to take down buildings? My office view would be about 1000 times better if they were clearing new space across the way with a few rounds from the SHAW-NE.
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Dear Santa -
You know what to do. - rebrad, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1okto (0) Said
"'Innocent life' doesn't teach teenagers to blow the ***** out of themselves in crowded areas.
'Innocent life' doesn't tortue people for holding different political views.
'Innocent life' doesn't spend aid money on guns."
True, time to grow up it's 'Innocent life' that gets the ship blown out of it, is tortured and is then taxed to pay for the guns. Ignorance is Bliss, Right. - Galaeron, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Fire in the spider hole
- wheels999, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Love it. Sounds like the perfect fix for nasty neighbours. ;-)
- cheese06, on 10/12/2007, -2/+3OHHHHHH, i read through the thread, waiting until someone would say "***** bush i hate usmc, well it looks like someone did, and the award goes to ALETORNW.
SEMPER FI, and good luck to the Marines fighting courageously in battle. come back home safe fellas. - hazri, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Thermobaric mixture. Is that like napalm which is outlawed by the UN
- ghelton, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1a coment from the article...
"I would think, that an explosive aimed from line-of-sight, that is man portable, would be far less likely to cause massive damage than, say, an artillery barrage, or an airstrike. Nothing controversial about the other two, so there shouldn't be anything controversial about this.
Posted by: Mycroft"
Thats a good excuse right. LOL in a very sad way - moondew, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Nice!
- stokestack, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1The article failed to mention that this is the new Sony DRM tool.
- DewayneSmith, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1"OOH RAH!"
Hooah. - jburchel, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2Woo Hoo!! God bless the United States Marine Corps, defending freedom wherever tyranny exists!
- nano, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I heard Russians use something similar on Chechens hiding in the caves. When fuel burns this thing creates vacuum around the explosion, so folks in the cave turn into bloody, boneless jelly. There's literally nothing to bury, bodies just fall apart when you try to move them.
- okto, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1'Innocent life' doesn't teach teenagers to blow the ***** out of themselves in crowded areas.
'Innocent life' doesn't tortue people for holding different political views.
'Innocent life' doesn't spend aid money on guns. - inactive, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Schmtity, what exactly is the point of a "bomb-proof heavily armored truck" if someone can use a thermobaric bomb and kill all the soldiers inside by asphyxiating them?
- Lumiras, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1interesting weapon, and it may have some really good uses. I'm guessing the marines won't be using this on buildings they know are filled with civilians, and I'm sure that these trained soldiers can keep collateral damage to a minimum
bonus: for some racist fun in the article, look in the comments, the guy saying that "in war, there are no none (sic, probably non) combatants" just pure gold there, guy - znxster, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1this is "shoulder mounted" .. sweet lord.. who are they gonna use this on? great digg
- rebrad, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Rock On. I'm hoping that hack a day will come up with a home grown version soon.
- Dayyve, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2Rednecks rejoice! 'Merica rocks! 'Merica is the baddest! Our balls are the biggest!
/sarcasm off
Cool frickin' weapon, but in reality it's really dismaying that stuff like this gets developed while we still drive gasoline engines and download in the US at less than a GD mb. Niiiiiiiiiiiiice. - CaptSnuffy, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2Don't they know, the first step toward peace is bringing hell crashing down around your enemies.
Kidding aside, this is the definitely the corrupt politicians weapon of choice. Weapons that can suck oxygen out of the air? Think of the applications! Eventually with changes to the technology areas could be cleared of all life without major damage to structures. Hell, even the food there wouldn't go bad. Would make colonization even easier, wouldn't it? - Otto, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Damn. That is one kick ass weapon. I so want one.
- Fantasmike, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I want my country, right or wrong, to win. As the saying goes, kill 'em all and let God sort 'em out. Damn terrorists and their supporters, any weapon that dispatches them faster is a good weapon in my book.
- zunigbab, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1"The manufacturers, Talley, make bold use of its track record, with a brochure headlined Thermobaric Urban Destruction."
THermobaric Urban Destruction (THUD) - Now that would have been a GREAT name! Coincidentally, that is the sound a building will make after you fire this bad boy. - Meshyf, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Why do people say stuff like
"A tool for more innocent life to be lost"
Anything is a tool for that. This is just designed for it. If you don't agree write a letter or something. As for me if it protects my way of living, and helps out the Iraqi people while saving some American lives too, then I'm all for it.
They give guns to kids. We arn't the ones fighting dirty here. - RobCowie, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Keiser: You're right - this appears to be US military doctrine "if in doubt, blow up the building". Whilst the British Army blow up buildings of course... it tends not to be the infantry - they usually enter the place. You see... blowing up buildings doesn't tend to endear you to the local non-combatant population
- blackjack75, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Actually bombing civilians has always been part of the strategy. It does affect morale and actually helps winning a war. Especially in iraq where those pesky civilians are the problem. They just have no sense of gratitude, they are behaving as if their country has been occupied by an foreign country for like huh.. oh... two damn years.
As for the focused strike, I just don't buy it sorry. Those who heard/watched the 1991 so-called "surgery" stories and only years later saw the real images/numbers can tell you this is just some plain marketing *****. It may getting lower numbers now but you still kill innocents and by the dozen. But what's a childs life worth anyway when you have a good 'cause'. - stonebear, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1This is just miniaturization, they have been dropping large versions of this weapon out of planes for years. It's just part of the general trend in technology.
I can't imagine why anyone would balk at these things though. War is always brutal whatever you happen to be using, that is the nature of war. If you want to single out an outrageous weapon, let it be land mines. They keep on killing people long after the war is over. - J_Omega, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2"a weapon that is easily capable of turning buildings—and humans—into bits of rubble. "
I for one am VERY impressed that the US was able to develop a weapon that can near instantaneously TURN A HUMAN INTO SMALL ROCKS. - Schmitty, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1What really gets my goat is that the same group that is up in arms (no pun intended) about the high soldier death toll in Iraq is the same group that screams about weapons that will KEEP said toll from climbing higher and higher. Same thing about a heavily armored truck a few weeks ago that the troops are getting, damn near BOMB PROOF and can hold more than a Hummer, and these groups are whining that it's based on a design used in South Africa during aparthied! I guess it's a mute point tho, because the weapons will be used regardless, and hopefully their use will allow more of those kids to come home to the open arms of their families.
- lollerskates, on 10/12/2007, -2/+3ghaze: You are what's wrong with America. I hope you die, ironically, from state execution.
Anyway, I worry that this will hinder our right to a revolution if we need it. One of the basic ideas of this government was the right to bear arms and form militias; that is, a final safeguard to keep the government's power in check. If the government can easily dispatch riots with this sort of technology, we may as well say goodbye to all our rights. -
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