VnutZ Domain
Copyright © 1996 - 2024 [Matthew Vea] - All Rights Reserved

2008-07-02
Featured Article

Controversial Weapon Used by British in Afghanistan

[index] [5,291 page views]
Tagged As: Afghanistan, Foreign Affairs, Military, Politics, and Weapon

When your enemy is hiding deep within a cave or reinforced building, oftentimes bombing the target simply shakes things up rather than causing actual harm. One weapon to mitigate this weakness currently in use by British forces in Afghanistan is the Hellfire AGM-114N missile. The AGM-114N is known as a thermobaric munition designed to expel a fine cloud of volatile mixture, in this case fluorinated aluminium powder, that penetrates deep into the structure, whereupon a secondary charge ignites the cloud. The resultant explosion violently burns all of the oxygen out of a localized area (especially in a cave) creating a suction, vacuum effect that can crush the bodies of enemies hiding beyond normal blast range. Thermobaric weapons are not a new technology and have been used in the past by Russians against Chechnya and employed on few occasions by American forces. However, the weapon comes with a negative international stigma that led the British Ministry of Defense to debate for 18 months whether it could be used. The MoD finally authorized thermobarics after re-designating them as more friendly: "We no longer accept the term thermobaric [for the AGM-114N] as there is no internationally agreed definition. We call it an enhanced blast weapon."



More site content that might interest you:

Everything is an advertising/marketing/intelligence sensor - including your cell phone.


Try your hand at fate and use the site's continuously updating statistical analysis of the MegaMillions and PowerBall lotteries to choose "smarter" number. Remember, you don't have to win the jackpot to win money from the lottery!


Tired of social media sites mining all your data? Try a private, auto-deleting message bulletin board.


paypal coinbase marcus