From: MSN NicknameEagle_wng (Original Message) Sent: 9/15/2007 12:58 AM
Bomb attests to Russian confidence
By Stephen Fidler in London
Published: September 15 2007 03:00 | Last updated: September 15 2007 03:00
The military oneupmanship of Russian under President Vladimir Putin continued this week with state television announcing a test, and showing pictures of, what it said was the world's most powerful non-nuclear bomb.
The date and location of the test were not given - western officials said there have, in fact, been others like it - but Russia's ORT First Channel television, citing the bomb's designers, said it was bigger and better than a US mega-bomb tested in 2003.
Russia described the weapon as a vacuum bomb, suggesting it fell into a category of weapons designed to create a massive fireball and a huge blast. The tested bomb appears to be a thermobaric weapon, a title derived from words meaning heat and pressure.
Conventional explosives carry their own oxygen while thermobaric weapons suck it out of the surrounding atmosphere. They usually contain two explosive charges, the first to disperse a fuel mixture into a cloud and the second to detonate the cloud. It is not clear what substances were used in the test, though some -versions of the weapons use aluminium powder.
When used in tight spaces, such as tunnels and caves, their effect can be devastating because the blast waves can travel round corners, rendering sandbags and body armour ineffective. The impact on people in the blast area can be grisly, as it sucks the air out of organs, such as lungs and intestines.
Though Russia says use of the weapons contravenes no international treaty, some governments are eschewing the technology. A spokeswoman for Britain's Ministry of Defence said yesterday the UK was not pursuing weapons optimised to create a heat pulse, nor those designed to have an impact over large areas.
Russia's mastery of this technology is not a surprise. Its forces used the technology in Afghanistan and, reportedly, in Chechnya - and it is used also in smaller rockets and artillery shells, some of which are available from Russian suppliers at arms fairs.
The US has followed suit, and has used a big thermobaric bomb of its own - the BLU-118 - at least once in the cave complexes of Afghanistan.
State television compared the Russian weapon with another US megabomb, the so-called Massive Ordnance Air Blast, nicknamed the Mother of All Bombs, hitherto the largest non-nuclear weapon tested.
The Russian weapon was described as generating an explosion equivalent to 44 tonnes of TNT - compared with 11 tonnes for the MOAB, and the blast radius was said to be 300 metres, twice that of the US bomb. But the Russian bomb was said to be lighter at 7,100kg compared with 8,200kg.
Stephen Flanagan, director of the international security programme at the Centerfor Strategic and International Studies in Washington, said the announcement seemed the latest example of new Russian military assertiveness.
This assertiveness has included the resumption of bomber patrols, the threat to suspend participation in the Conventional Forces in Europe treaty and the planting of a Russian flag under the North Pole, and helps to bolster Mr Putin ahead of parliamentary elections in December and presidential elections next March.
*British and Norwegian fighter jets intercepted two Russian long-range bombers that crossed into Nato airspace yesterday, the UK military said.
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/3a347188-631f-11dc-b3ad-0000779fd2ac.html