Wrong Ordnance for the job. The GBU-57B is the Massive Ordnance Penetrator(MOP) designed to Pierce the Overburden and reinforced shell of a Target before exploding, while the GBU-43B MOAB(Massive Ordnance, Air Burst) or ‘Mother Of All Bombs, is carried by an MC-130, and creates a Fuel Air Explosion, with a Blast Wave/Radius of a mile. Looking at the means of delivery, I really wish we had included GBU-43s in the operation. After the B-2 Spirits had dropped on their target points, removing the top ten or twenty feet of the surface in the area would have left even the most fanatical of the Iranians scared Spitless.
As it is, the Ceasefire and the second ceasefire right after, should give the State department a hefty bargaining position…
You can carry a buttload of cluster bombs in that bay, assuming you’re not picky about who is on the receiving end. Three B-1s could have wiped out ISIS when they were on the road and away from the cities. Could have solved that problem in one afternoon, and saved a lot of innocent lives by doing so. Didn’t happen under Obama, but President Trump sorted it out.
Instead ‘bama airdropped weapons and supplies to them…
June 24, 2025 at 12:54 am
Ensign Nemo
The tentative announcement of a ceasefire is a welcome development. It’s not yet clear if this is the true end of Iranian mischief, or if they are just catching their breath while they plot new mischief.
The United State since the end of WWII has been blessed with the world’s best military, but has been cursed with what often seem to be the world’s dumbest politicians. Almost every failure of the United States to use military force to achieve a political objective in the past 80 years has been the result of muddled political thinking or execution.
It may take a few years for everyone to recognize this, but if there is no regime change in Iran and the Islamic fanatics maintain power, they will eventually be able to cobble together a few nuclear weapons. If North Korea and Pakistan and South Africa could do it, then Iran can too. It’s much easier now than it was in 1945 as technology is far better overall.
The stark choices are either regime change, or allowing Iran to get nukes. Bombs can delay their nuclear program but it’s almost impossible to use conventional force to destroy every possible location where they are trying to build the bomb. I just can’t envision a radical Islamic Shiite regime seriously complying with an agreement to give up on the bomb. Their daily chants of “Death to America” are just about the only Iranian words that I deem to be credible and sincere.
A Zoroastrian revival is ready to burst out onto Iran and take it back the way Catholics Spain did from the Iberian Caliphate. A SMARTER CIA would be working on getting such as Freddy Mercury’s communities (and I do NOT mean the gays) rallied up to TAKE BACK their country and their religion! There’s evidence of this whether we’re helping it or not.
Epic City.
I’ll say the same thing I said to Ignatius Piazza when he tried to sell me a homesite at Front Sight: “For a bunch of guys who are adamant they will never get on the boxcars, why would we want to save the commies the cost of the train ride?”
I still think kinetic harpoons, at least a prototype set, are hidden onboard at least one commercial satellite in orbit. MANY times more powerful than a bunker buster, basically same destructive power as an atomic bomb but without the radioactive fallout. The second “GI Joe” film featured it as Cobra Commander’s key to world domination once they’d neutralized the major nuclear powers.
In real life, using any would be a game changer. The official story is “it’s too hard to haul one up into orbit”, but not in pieces. Just have special agent astronauts assemble them a little bit at a time over years while on ostensible regular maintenance missions. If a country ever does nuke us we can then at least wipe them out using the harpoons instead of our nukes, so to avoid contributing to the global fallout on our end of MAD.
Put simply, international law prohibits “Rods From God”. And has since 1967.
Also, on a somewhat reduced scale it’s the same problem as “policing the Earth with nuclear missiles” based on the Moon. (Sorry, Col. Breen.) It’s called Circular Error of Probability (CEP). Even with GPS guidance, your best accuracy from LEO is going to be on the order of 250 meters radius.
A quarter-klik doesn’t matter much with a nuke. With a kinetic weapon that will fit inside a satellite, it matters a lot. It’s the difference between a round from a 40mm grenade launcher at 200 meters, and a .22 rimfire bullet at the same range. The latter may or may not hit close enough to the “bullseye” to get the job done.
And no, “Missiles on the Moon” was never taken seriously by anybody who knew orbital dynamics. Among other things, putting 50 Polaris -sized missiles on a lunar base (as in the quote from the 1967 movie Quatermass and the Pit) would have cost the British government a sum equal to the entire British GNP from the Norman Conquest of 1066 to 1966.
Also, some sort of final-stage command guidance would have been required. The Ranger lunar probes were radio-guided and it was considered a complete success if they hit within 25 km of where they were “aimed”. And nobody was ECM’ing them. Launch missiles at Russia or the U.S. or whoever from the Moon, you can bet the intended recipients will be jamming for all they’re worth.
And going back to CEP, the CEP for a 400,000 km “shot” from the Moon at Moscow would be wide enough that it could very likely land on…Kyiv.
So… no. “Rods From God” just won’t work. Not at the 1965 tech level, not at our present tech level, and probably not until we have FTL sensors and FTL communications.
At which point we’ll probably have something much more effective and practical to do the job.
Trying to hit a target moving at 1,000 mph from a firing point moving much faster than that does have some unique problems, which is most likely why it’s never been tried. Spacecraft re-entry is a much different equation that’s simplified greatly by braking the vehicle while it’s leaving orbit, in that case you want the minimal relative speed to the ground, not the maximum.
June 24, 2025 at 5:33 am
Contrarian View
Most people say that if they had a time machine they would go back and eliminate baby Hitler. I would go back to the sixth century and eliminate baby Mohammed. Islam is a stage 4 cancer on the body of human civilization.
The problem is Socialism, Islamic or otherwise, is an inherent mental disorder.
It can’t possibly work because of Human Nature but the promise of making Heaven on Earth is so addictive some people are willing to suspend every iota of critical thought to try to bring it about no matter the cost.
Sadly, this may well be OUR solution to Fermi’s Paradox. Someday, someway, some nutjob will kill us all in pursuit of Heaven.
21 Comments
Down town.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MvyBrX1eK4I
Wrong Ordnance for the job. The GBU-57B is the Massive Ordnance Penetrator(MOP) designed to Pierce the Overburden and reinforced shell of a Target before exploding, while the GBU-43B MOAB(Massive Ordnance, Air Burst) or ‘Mother Of All Bombs, is carried by an MC-130, and creates a Fuel Air Explosion, with a Blast Wave/Radius of a mile. Looking at the means of delivery, I really wish we had included GBU-43s in the operation. After the B-2 Spirits had dropped on their target points, removing the top ten or twenty feet of the surface in the area would have left even the most fanatical of the Iranians scared Spitless.
As it is, the Ceasefire and the second ceasefire right after, should give the State department a hefty bargaining position…
Set the fuze for shallow and you can cause a lot of damage in a built up area…the British WW2 ‘earthquake bombs’ were only 12,000 and 20,000 lbs.
You can carry a buttload of cluster bombs in that bay, assuming you’re not picky about who is on the receiving end. Three B-1s could have wiped out ISIS when they were on the road and away from the cities. Could have solved that problem in one afternoon, and saved a lot of innocent lives by doing so. Didn’t happen under Obama, but President Trump sorted it out.
Agree. I believe back in 14 2 or 3 A-10s
could have wiped ISIS out as they were
parading through the desert with their
black flags waving.
Instead ‘bama airdropped weapons and supplies to them…
The tentative announcement of a ceasefire is a welcome development. It’s not yet clear if this is the true end of Iranian mischief, or if they are just catching their breath while they plot new mischief.
The United State since the end of WWII has been blessed with the world’s best military, but has been cursed with what often seem to be the world’s dumbest politicians. Almost every failure of the United States to use military force to achieve a political objective in the past 80 years has been the result of muddled political thinking or execution.
It may take a few years for everyone to recognize this, but if there is no regime change in Iran and the Islamic fanatics maintain power, they will eventually be able to cobble together a few nuclear weapons. If North Korea and Pakistan and South Africa could do it, then Iran can too. It’s much easier now than it was in 1945 as technology is far better overall.
The stark choices are either regime change, or allowing Iran to get nukes. Bombs can delay their nuclear program but it’s almost impossible to use conventional force to destroy every possible location where they are trying to build the bomb. I just can’t envision a radical Islamic Shiite regime seriously complying with an agreement to give up on the bomb. Their daily chants of “Death to America” are just about the only Iranian words that I deem to be credible and sincere.
“It’s not yet clear if this is the true end of Iranian mischief, or if they are just catching their breath while they plot new mischief.”
Oh, I think it’s pretty clear.
ceasefire = reload in both Arabic and Farsi
A Zoroastrian revival is ready to burst out onto Iran and take it back the way Catholics Spain did from the Iberian Caliphate. A SMARTER CIA would be working on getting such as Freddy Mercury’s communities (and I do NOT mean the gays) rallied up to TAKE BACK their country and their religion! There’s evidence of this whether we’re helping it or not.
Seems Iran is still launching missiles.
Wait! What? You mean the 12th century death-cult barbarians lied?
The bomber crews had a 37-hour flight. For most of us that’s a work WEEK.
Epic City.
I’ll say the same thing I said to Ignatius Piazza when he tried to sell me a homesite at Front Sight: “For a bunch of guys who are adamant they will never get on the boxcars, why would we want to save the commies the cost of the train ride?”
I still think kinetic harpoons, at least a prototype set, are hidden onboard at least one commercial satellite in orbit. MANY times more powerful than a bunker buster, basically same destructive power as an atomic bomb but without the radioactive fallout. The second “GI Joe” film featured it as Cobra Commander’s key to world domination once they’d neutralized the major nuclear powers.
In real life, using any would be a game changer. The official story is “it’s too hard to haul one up into orbit”, but not in pieces. Just have special agent astronauts assemble them a little bit at a time over years while on ostensible regular maintenance missions. If a country ever does nuke us we can then at least wipe them out using the harpoons instead of our nukes, so to avoid contributing to the global fallout on our end of MAD.
https://www.projectrho.com/public_html/rocket/planetaryattack.php
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Outer_Space_Treaty
Put simply, international law prohibits “Rods From God”. And has since 1967.
Also, on a somewhat reduced scale it’s the same problem as “policing the Earth with nuclear missiles” based on the Moon. (Sorry, Col. Breen.) It’s called Circular Error of Probability (CEP). Even with GPS guidance, your best accuracy from LEO is going to be on the order of 250 meters radius.
A quarter-klik doesn’t matter much with a nuke. With a kinetic weapon that will fit inside a satellite, it matters a lot. It’s the difference between a round from a 40mm grenade launcher at 200 meters, and a .22 rimfire bullet at the same range. The latter may or may not hit close enough to the “bullseye” to get the job done.
And no, “Missiles on the Moon” was never taken seriously by anybody who knew orbital dynamics. Among other things, putting 50 Polaris -sized missiles on a lunar base (as in the quote from the 1967 movie Quatermass and the Pit) would have cost the British government a sum equal to the entire British GNP from the Norman Conquest of 1066 to 1966.
Also, some sort of final-stage command guidance would have been required. The Ranger lunar probes were radio-guided and it was considered a complete success if they hit within 25 km of where they were “aimed”. And nobody was ECM’ing them. Launch missiles at Russia or the U.S. or whoever from the Moon, you can bet the intended recipients will be jamming for all they’re worth.
And going back to CEP, the CEP for a 400,000 km “shot” from the Moon at Moscow would be wide enough that it could very likely land on…Kyiv.
So… no. “Rods From God” just won’t work. Not at the 1965 tech level, not at our present tech level, and probably not until we have FTL sensors and FTL communications.
At which point we’ll probably have something much more effective and practical to do the job.
clear ether
eon
Trying to hit a target moving at 1,000 mph from a firing point moving much faster than that does have some unique problems, which is most likely why it’s never been tried. Spacecraft re-entry is a much different equation that’s simplified greatly by braking the vehicle while it’s leaving orbit, in that case you want the minimal relative speed to the ground, not the maximum.
Most people say that if they had a time machine they would go back and eliminate baby Hitler. I would go back to the sixth century and eliminate baby Mohammed. Islam is a stage 4 cancer on the body of human civilization.
The problem is Socialism, Islamic or otherwise, is an inherent mental disorder.
It can’t possibly work because of Human Nature but the promise of making Heaven on Earth is so addictive some people are willing to suspend every iota of critical thought to try to bring it about no matter the cost.
Sadly, this may well be OUR solution to Fermi’s Paradox. Someday, someway, some nutjob will kill us all in pursuit of Heaven.
I’ve often wondered what the world would be like if Mohammed’s father used the other hole, or if he would have just stayed with his goats.
Go for muhammed, saladin and marx…that would solve 90% of the world’s problems.