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| Science & Technology |
| Marines Quiet About Brutal New Weapon |
| 2005-11-16 |
| War is hell. But it’s worse when the Marines bring out their new urban combat weapon, the SMAW-NE. Which may be why they’re not talking about it, much. This is a version of the standard USMC Shoulder Mounted Assault Weapon but with a new warhead. Described as NE - "Novel Explosive"- it is a thermobaric mixture which ignites the air, producing a shockwave of unparalleled destructive power, especially against buildings. JPGA post-action report from Iraq describes the effect of the new weapon: "One unit disintegrated a large one-storey masonry type building with one round from 100 meters. They were extremely impressed." Elsewhere it is described by one Marine as "an awesome piece of ordnance." It proved highly effective in the battle for Fallujah. This from the Marine Corps Gazette, July edition: "SMAW gunners became expert at determining which wall to shoot to cause the roof to collapse and crush the insurgents fortified inside interior rooms." The NE round is supposed to be capable of going through a brick wall, but in practice gunners had to fire through a window or make a hole with an anti-tank rocket. Again, from the Marine Corps Gazette: "Due to the lack of penetrating power of the NE round, we found that our assaultmen had to first fire a dual-purpose rocket in order to create a hole in the wall or building. This blast was immediately followed by an NE round that would incinerate the target or literally level the structure." The rational for this approach was straightforward: "Marines could employ blast weapons prior to entering houses that had become pillboxes, not homes. The economic cost of house replacement is not comparable to American lives...all battalions adopted blast techniques appropriate to entering a bunker, assuming you did not know if the bunker was manned." The manufacturers, Talley, make bold use of its track record, with a brochure headlined Thermobaric Urban Destruction." The SMAW-NE has only been procured by the USMC, though there are reports that some were 'borrowed' by other units. However, there are also proposals on the table that thousands of obsolete M-72 LAWs could be retrofitted with thermobaric warheads, making then into effective urban combat tools. But in an era of precision bombs, where collateral damage is expected to be kept to a minimum, such massively brutal weapons have become highly controversial. These days, every civilian casualty means a few more "hearts and minds" are lost. Thermobaric weapons almost invariable lead to civilian deaths. The Soviet Union was heavily criticized for using thermobaric weapons in Afghanistan because they were held to constitute "disproportionate force," and similar criticisms were made when thermobarics were used in the Chechen conflict. According to Human Rights Watch, thermobaric weapons "kill and injure in a particularly brutal manner over a wide area. In urban settings it is very difficult to limit the effect of this weapon to combatants, and the nature of FAE explosions makes it virtually impossible for civilians to take shelter from their destructive effect." The thermobaric weapons used in Afghanistan by the Russians were far more destructive. Things such as air-dropped propane munitions that would kill everyone out in the open over a half-square mile area. No comparison. |
| Posted by:Anonymoose |
| #22 I would not want to have that M-28 land short after lighting her off. |
| Posted by: Alaska Paul 2005-11-16 22:26 |
| #21 That M-28 looks like something straight outta Michael Nesmith's "Neighborhood Nuclear Superiority" skit. |
| Posted by: Zenster 2005-11-16 22:11 |
| #20 The problem with the Davy Crockett was that its range was substantially less than a Sov tank column could cover in, say, five minutes. And since the Sovs were going to make the first move, the Davy Crocketts would have been either destroyed or turned around. |
| Posted by: Richard Aubrey 2005-11-16 20:21 |
| #19 Raisin' the roof!! |
| Posted by: KBK 2005-11-16 20:13 |
| #18 1.5 mile range? What was the blast radius? I sure hope < 1.5 miles. |
| Posted by: Jackal 2005-11-16 20:12 |
| #17 |
| Posted by: KBK 2005-11-16 20:12 |
| #16 I don't suppose anyone is about to place an IED detector on the market. Take IEDs away from Iraqi terrorists, and then all they have is suicide-torpedos. |
| Posted by: CaziFarkus 2005-11-16 20:07 |
| #15 nice response to a Paleo Qassam tho' heh heh |
| Posted by: Frank G 2005-11-16 20:06 |
| #14 Well, bless my soul, Ship. A Davy Crockett nuclear recoiless rifle. That appears to be the M-28 version, 120mm, 116 pounds with a 1.5 mile range. Just a pipsqueak of a warhead, only a yield of 40 tons of TNT. Still, it will remodel the neighborhood. |
| Posted by: Steve 2005-11-16 20:01 |
| #13 But in an era of precision bombs, where collateral damage is expected to be kept to a minimum, such massively brutal weapons have become highly controversial. These days, every civilian casualty means a few more "hearts and minds" are lost. Losing the "hearts and minds" of people who dance around buring troop carriers doesn't strike me as being very high on our list of concerns. Making a nest of terrorist gunmen collapse upon itself sounds just ducky. Hiding indoors is going to lose a whole lot of its appeal in very short order. Just think of it; House "Got 'em? Good. Okay, Jake, now flatten the next one!" Just think of it as an extremely compact and readily portable D-9. This is precisely what the technology invented by our free nation was designed to do for us. All whiners, please report to the SMAW -NE testing grounds for human factors efficacy verification. |
| Posted by: Zenster 2005-11-16 19:36 |
#12 The M-14 has worked out so well, that now the Green Machine reaches way back..... |
| Posted by: Shipman 2005-11-16 19:31 |
| #11 I am pretty sure that there were fewer undecided hearts and minds in Fallujah for the winning than there are at a Moveon.org convention. |
| Posted by: Super Hose 2005-11-16 19:15 |
| #10 Keep in cookin' in the research lab, folks, this is gonna be a long war on terrs. What's in the tank for the Iranian moolahs? |
| Posted by: Captain America 2005-11-16 18:46 |
| #9 "Thermobaric Urban Destruction" I love it! The last thing the islamofascists hear as the building collapes on them: "ThUD!" |
| Posted by: Dar 2005-11-16 18:16 |
| #8 These days, every civilian casualty means a few more "hearts and minds" are lost. Nobody's perfect. |
| Posted by: Bomb-a-rama 2005-11-16 18:13 |
| #7 Thermobaric rounds are also in use for smaller rounds like shotguns, and will be extremely useful for clearing rooms and such when closer combat is required. Mmmmm BBQ EP |
| Posted by: ElvisHasLeftTheBuilding 2005-11-16 18:00 |
| #6 What about depleted uranium white phosphorus cluster bomb flamethrower land mine rounds? |
| Posted by: tu3031 2005-11-16 17:16 |
| #5 Beverage Alert, please, tu! /off to find a mop... |
| Posted by: Seafarious 2005-11-16 17:14 |
| #4 How about depleted uranium white phosphorus rounds? |
| Posted by: tu3031 2005-11-16 17:09 |
| #3 Actually the most brutal weapon the Marines have is the Drill Instructor. Of course to the article has to whine about the "brutalness" of the weapon. It is war jackass. You try to kill the other guy and keep your guys alive. Use anything to make this happen. Period. |
| Posted by: mmurray821 2005-11-16 17:08 |
| #2 Can it fire white phosphorus rounds? |
| Posted by: tu3031 2005-11-16 17:06 |
| #1 Reminds me of a joke that was going around when I was in the Corps. Something about the reason the USMC doesn't have nukes is because they'd try to make hand grenades out of the damned things. |
| Posted by: BH 2005-11-16 17:03 |