Give us a gun!

[Bill4a]

Watching the latest success against IS it struck me that using a shockingly expensive missile to zap a Toyota pick up was a touch of overkill, and what was needed was a cannon that would have done the job cheaper. I'm sure there is a reason.

[Pontius Navigator]

Previously discussed.

1. MANPAD

2. Treatment of prisoners.

[Evalu8ter]

Wot PN said...

Plus, when the enemy is in range - so are you! Duking it out with a DshKa in a Tornado might not be too much fun....

Now, if we had a platform with a REAL gun it would be different. A10 and AC130 would probably do very well, but they aren't pointy nor built in the UK so you can forget them.

[dazdaz1]

Cluster bombs would be a good financial alternative to costly missiles. Although I think they might have been banned now.

[Courtney Mil]

Same with poison gas, Daz. Shame really, but there we go.

[VX275]

Would using C-17s to carpet bomb IS with FAE devices be considered excessive?

[diginagain]

Would using C-17s to carpet bomb IS with FAE devices be considered excessive?

That might depend on where you're standing...

[ValMORNA]

Napalm must be relatively cheap, or have the spoil-sports banned that too? If so, just call it Jihadist Breakfast Juice or some other cunning plan.

[ShotOne]

There's all sorts of stuff which would indiscriminately wipe out thousands of people. But would it help our cause?

[Herod]

On another thread someone mentioned thermobaric weapons. I have to confess to ignorance, but having Wiki'ed them, it would seem to make a lot of sense.

[air pig]

Or build a wall 2 miles inside Turkey, sow a claymore minefield attack dogs and man traps, and I'm sure there's more than a few DDR border guards who need a pension supplement

[chiglet]

Send a C17/139 full of bacon butties, Drop the lot...Whoooos not going to paradise then?

[Davef68]

Rockets would be an alternative, but have the same vulnerability issues as a gun (And I don't think Tornados have carried them since pre-service trials)

[VinRouge]

Hydra flechette with the laser guidance on the casing would be the bomb.
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Direc..._Guided_Rocket

Personally a fan of doing a Stalingrad on an Isis town or city for every westerner killed by beheading, but as per usual we will just toddle along getting hamstrung by lawyers at every turn.

[ShotOne]

By"an ISIS town" you mean a normal Syrian/Iraqi town full of ordinary people who mostly loathe ISIS even more than we do?

[GOLF_BRAVO_ZULU]

VinRouge; you've really got the hang of the hearts-and-minds business, haven't you.

[Fox3WheresMyBanana]

Indirectly, he has a point; suggest we start by cluster-bombing western lawyers.

[VinRouge]

GBZ, leaflet drop 24 hours before, as did the Americans at Fallujah.

We should either fight to win or not fight at all. We lost the last two by being hamstrung by roe. Our exit from Basrah was an embarrassment as we made promises to the local population we couldn't keep. The trouble makers had freedom of movement yet we didn't do much to stop them.

[Wensleydale]

I would wager that the lawyers would not allow us to wrap the bodies of killed ISIS in a pigskin shroud either! (although in theory this would stop them going to their "heaven" which is why they fight jihad in the first place).

[typerated]

CRV-7 would give the stand off range and all the joy of a gun.


With a very good kill rate/$


Now if only we operated a type to carry it