Tornadoes to drop 'concrete bombs'

[GH]

I looked closely at the date, but it says 4th April:

Tornado jets are poised to use yet another different weapon in the war against Iraq ... concrete bombs.

The jets, normally based at RAF Marham in Norfolk, have already used high-tech weaponry such as the "bunker busting" cruise missile Storm Shadow, which cost £750,000 apiece and can pierce several feet of concrete.

But now the crews operating over Iraq from the Ali Al Salem airbase in northern Kuwait are about to go to the opposite extreme and use "inert bombs".

These are basically blocks of concrete shaped as bombs and painted blue to identify them as non-explosive if they are discovered still intact after the war.

Full piece at BBC News (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/2919249.stm)

Now we know. It's not about oil... we want all that sand!

P.S. I remember the "Blue Circle" association of the Torando, but is this a late April Fool?

[ORAC]

Well, as they always say, train how you intend to fight. ;)

[Archimedes]

Don't think this is a new idea - there was talk of using concrete-filled PGMs a few years ago - I think in relation to Bosnia: land 1,000lb of concrete on a tank, and you'll make it difficult for it to pass its MOT, but won't hit nearby civvies or Culturally Unique National Treasures (a phrase that was abandoned about thirty seconds after it was coined...). The most recent references I've seen to this have been about using the training rounds or a deriviative glorying in the name of Minimum Collateral Damage Weapon.

[BlueWolf]

There have been reports of them being used already by RAF and USAF ac enforcing the no-fly zones over Iraq (now extended to cover the entire country!), to take out radar sites and the like where there was a risk of collateral damage.

Half a ton of precision-guided concrete going at close to Mach 1 makes a fair mess of sensitive electronic gear!

[Beeayeate]

So that dirty, white-dust producing factory coast-wards of St Athan was a muntions plant? Always suspicious of that place, Aberthaw wasn't it?

[SASless]

Blue on Blue has taken a whole new definition here!

[Memetic]

Perhaps Blue Circle (http://www.bluecircle.co.uk/) on Blue?

[BEagle]

Not a terribly new idea - didn't FAA Wyverns use concrete-headed rockets during the 1950s?

Hardly 'precision guided' back then! Perhaps 'precision-aimed', but the flight path of the rockets after release was, I gather, somewhat arbitrary.......

[BlueWolf]

From the deeps of memory come a couple of other examples of "really dumb" weapons triumphing over high tech...

In WWII, NZ soldiers had some success in flushing German troops out of trenches and foxholes in the desert by throwing stones.
The theory, which apparently worked, was that if, at night or in poor light, something landed next to you with a thud, you got out of your hole quicksmart rather than wait to see if it was a grenade.
Why not simply throw a grenade I hear you ask? Probably because, true to British tradition, they weren't in as plentiful supply as they could have been....

During the Soviet incursion into Finland in the same conflict, the Finns managed to take out Russian tanks, using tree branches. The method of operation was to hide behind a tree until the said armour was up close and personal, and then dash out and jam a suitably-sized log into the tracks.
Nip back behind your tree while the tank comes to a grinding halt, and then pop out and shoot the first unfortunate crew member who gets out to see what's wrong.
The Russkies faced a grim choice; stay in your tank and freeze to death, or get out and get shot. The account I read did not mention any Finnish respect for hastily improvised white flags.

[Beeayeate]

Yes Beags, it is not a new idea. Back in 60 at 2FTS, Syreston, there were for a while four Kuwaiti Air Force Jet Provost camel-scarers lodge with us. The Kuwati studes (Jaguar saloon drivers to a man) flew with concrete headed rockets under the wings. The destructive powers of even these un-guided weapons was shown by the inadvertant release of a full salvo by one of the studes on the flight-line - the trees and largish earth-heap on the other side of the airfield didn't stand a chance! The spent missiles are probably still on the bottom of the river Trent (for those that don't know Syertson, river runs along the back boundry).

[tony draper]

I read about a idea put forward years ago about what were termed kinetic weapons, the suggestion was that large tool steel darts delivered at high speed by the SR71 could sink a carrier.
Might be a roll for the Concoure once they retire her.
Never understood why they retired the Blackbird but kept the U2 operational.

:confused:

[Beeayeate]

Imagine the scene though - heat of battle, confusion, smoke, noise, and though the dust, debris and tracer comes a Blue Circle concrete mixer truck with yer typical, fag-smoking, truck driver leaning out the cab window - "' 'scuse me mate, I'm yer close air support. Where d'ya want it, eh? Come on squire, ain't got all day y'know, got two more fire-fights to do before me lunch!"

[Jackonicko]

Wasn't there a case in WWII in which a German bomber came over and carefully (and with great accuracy) dropped a stick of wooden bombs on a British dummy airfield. Herman's little 'joke', as it were? I'm sure I read something about it somewhere.

[CarltonBrowne the FO]

Of course, the use of concrete in the Tornado is nothing new.... better the bombs than the radar!

[rivetjoint]

Maybe you need a concrete "radar" to guide concrete munitions!

[ORAC]

Is this an option to being mortared? :O

[witchdoctor]

How else do you expect to cement relations with the natives in a post-war Iraq?

[rivetjoint]

By laying sound concrete foundations.

[tony draper]

Beat your swords into rockeries huh?. :rolleyes:

[ORAC]

Only to be used by hard core killers....

[Gainesy]

...Oh, and a bag of gravel please.

Will female crews have to wear false beards for this? :)

[Noah Zark.]

Looking at some of the statues of old Soddem that they are pulling down, perhaps some of these concrete bombs have actually hit their targets before the concrete had set, and coated several Soddem look-alikes with a layer just as it "went off", pointing up and saying something like ( From Fantasy Island) "De Plane, Boss, De Plane!"

[sdpp99]

mavericks (with no warhead) to kill tanks ...

More of the vehicle left over .. for re-use ...

can't remember which of their wars though.

perhaps el zionist grande can enlighten us

[curmudgeon]

I'm sure that I read somewhere that during WWII the Air ministry issued an edict to all bomber crews that on no account was the chemical lavvy (crews, for the use of) to be chucked out whilst over enemy territory. Apparently a cow had the misfortune to be under one of these when it reached the ground. A resulting investigation into the cow's mysterious demise, and scientific analysis of the immediate area around the cow, concluded that the Brits were using a new type of chemical weapon.

Protests were made to the International Red Cross, resulting in the edict.

cur

[BlueWolf]

Similar instructions were issued to the Luftwaffe regarding occupied France, apparently because the High Command felt the place wasn't worth s******g on....:D :D :D