How Big Of A Boom?

[DocHayes]

I've been going back and forth, as to whether or not I wanted to start and devote a thread to this subject or not... but I'm going to give it a shot anyway...

With advances in guidance and accuracy with the artillery family of munitions... how big of an explosion do we really need to eliminate target?

Its logical to think that with a more reliable and accurate way destroy an objective (greater chance at achieving mission, reducing collateral damage,etc), you can do more with less. Right?

On the other hand... is there still a need for munitions that we need to "just get in the neighborhood" to get the same affect (munitions up to 16" size)?

From what I've read on these boards... I think that is what the future of the BB's and NSGFS kinda hangs on.

Personnaly I feel that if the Navy sees a need or predicts that there will be a need for that type of firepower... the Iowa's would still be here, or a truly equivilant platform would be in the works (and its not the Zumwalt, or railgun IMHO).

I'd like to see some good debate on this.

[Gun Grape]

Its called "Effects based fire support". Tailor the boom for what you want done to the target.

[FOG3]

This is probably a good general overview, especially seems as how the AF likes to claim it could replace the Navy every now and then.

PGMs and DPICMs munitions in particular allow a lot of tailoring to target and tend to be more effective then raw HE due to the spherical volume raising energy requirements by the cube effect. The Zumwalt's guns are meant to be analogous to 155mm batteries as per USMC specifications for what they want from NGFS assets. Larger caliber especially if more inaccurate guns tend to be less useful due to friendly fire considerations and otherwise.

[reve893]

The bigger the boom the better. America's response to numbers is firepower. We need bigger guns, and bigger nukes.

[RustyBattleship]

The bigger the boom the better. America's response to numbers is firepower. We need bigger guns, and bigger nukes.

Watching the Military Channel, they show all kinds of enormous explosions. They showed the MOAB (Mother Of All Bombs) and the Russians claim they have come out with a FOAB (Father Of All Bombs). Though we have had the Daisy Cutters for years and even in WW II we had the Block Busters and Tall Boys.

That's fine if all your enemy is clustered in one spot and no civilians are around. But that's not the enemy we are facing today. In the first Gulf War the Battleships were very useful in taking out concrete bunkers, gun boat anchorages, etc. But that's only when few or no innocent civilians were about.

Today the radical Muslims are scattered all over the place hiding behind women and children, converting Mosques into Fortresses, gleefully blowing themselves up one by one but killing scores of "non-believers".

The ONLY way to use large explosive ordnance is to evacuate the town of all women, children, old folks, etc. Surround the town with Abrams, Challengers and Leopards with a squad of Foreign Legionaires in between each tank. Funnel the citizenry through secure check points and pick out any person that looks like he might be a radical "on the run" and take him to Osaka for questioning.

If the chieftan (mayor, governer, city manager or whatever) doesn't tell you exactly where the insurgents are hiding and where their weapons caches are, then it's time to take REAL action.

In central Europe in WW II we merely started leveling the "safe" towns with the tank guns until somebody "suddenly remembered" where the Nazi sniper was sleeping, eating, going to the toilet, etc. After doing that to two towns in a row the Burgermeister was at the gates with a list of places to "visit" first (as related to me by a welder at the shipyard who was a tank gunner then).

Today, we either use the 120mm HE firepower of the tanks surrounding the town, if it's small enough, or call in for a Tupolov to drop a couple of FOABs for us.

No town. No insurgents. No worry. No casualties on our side. Go to the next town. Before long, the town leaders will be sending you names and addresses of all the guys in the black ski-masks.

Don't say it. I know. I was referring to France, Germany and Russia to join up with us (we already have England and Japan) and bring this terrorism to an end once and for all.

Because if we leave, Al-Sadr will immediately become dictator and worse than Sadaam. That's all he really wants and he's using misinterpreted readings of the Koran to keep his terrorists going. His teacher in misinterpretations, Osama, must be proud of him.

[reve893]

I agree wholeheartedly. That's what we need to level towns down, and turn all of Islam against us. It will be exactly like the Chechen Wars, that Russia fought. They sure used their numbers and firepower to destroy the rebellion. But is it really possible to evacuate a town of civilians and expect the terrorist to stay there. Or just the act of getting the people that even look "radical." That right there is totally wrong. Nah but i am all for it. Father and Mother of all bombs are both air blast weapons.