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http://www.estripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=7508 Stars And Stripes Thursday, March 28, 2002 USFK: Cave-busting thermobaric bombs could prove useful against N. Korea By Wayne Specht, Misawa bureau chief Pacific edition, Thursday, March 28, 2002 Thermobaric warheads used in Afghanistan to destroy caves and fill tunnels with fireballs someday could become part of the U.S. arsenal for protection of South Korea, a U.S. Forces-Korea spokeswoman said Monday. "Since North Korea has numerous hardened underground facilities for its military, USFK needs unique capabilities of precision weapons to deny a sanctuary to any potential adversary," Lee Ferguson said. USFK was the operational sponsor of a successful test detonation of the BLU-118B warhead Dec. 14 in Nevada, according to Air Force documents posted on Global Security.org, a web-based policy research organization founded by John Pike, a former analyst and project director at the Federation of American Scientists from 1983-2000. A Defense Threat Reduction Agency spokesman said all tests of new weapons must have an operational sponsor, customarily commands that would ultimately have a specific need for a certain type of weapon. "USFK stands ready in Korea to defend our ally," Ferguson said. "We continue to seek the best technology to be prepared to execute our defense and to protect our allies, soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines." According to the Defense Threat Reduction Agency’s Web site, the agency initiated a three-year Advanced Concept Technology Demonstration (ACTD) for a thermobaric weapon system to defeat hardened underground targets. Weapons capable of destroying reinforced, underground targets are "something we clearly have a need for in Afghanistan," Pete Aldridge, undersecretary of defense for acquisition, technology and logistics, said recently at the Pentagon. Pike said such a weapon could be used against North Korea’s extensive complex of tunnels. "North Korea probably has one of the greatest concentration of bunkers and tunnel complexes under the earth," Pike said. "The whole country is one big piece of Swiss cheese." Pike said North Koreans may be storing weapons in the tunnels to use against forces south of the Demilitarized Zone that separates the two Koreas. Production of the thermobaric bomb resulted from a partnership among the Department of Energy, Navy, Air Force and Defense Threat Reduction Agency, said Capt. Joe Della Vedova, an Air Force spokesman at the Pentagon. The test against a mock tunnel at the Nevada Test Site concluded a two-month accelerated development period and proved the BLU-118B’s utility for the war on terrorism. Ten warheads were immediately made available to the Air Force for deployment following the test, and several of the bombs were used against cave and tunnel complexes to neutralize Taliban and al-Qaida forces during recently completed Operation Anaconda operations in Afghanistan. The thermobaric warhead can be delivered by a wide variety of Air Force and Navy strike aircraft, including the F-15, the F-16 and the F/A-18. The United States used a similar kind of weapon, called a fuel-air explosive, during the Vietnam War. That weapon detonated a mist of liquid fuel. The new version uses solid explosives. A fact sheet posted at the Threat Reduction Agency’s Web site explains the thermobaric weapon generates higher sustained blast pressures in confined spaces such as tunnels and underground facilities. __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Yahoo! Movies - coverage of the 74th Academy Awards® http://movies.yahoo.com/ --------------------------- ANTI-NATO INFORMATION LIST ==^================================================================ This email was sent to: archive@jab.org EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?a84x2u.a9617B Or send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] T O P I C A -- Register now to manage your mail! http://www.topica.com/partner/tag02/register ==^================================================================
