Agence France Presse March 14, 2003
The armies: US has smart, stealthy and mysterious arsenal
By Jean-Michel Stoullig
The most powerful army on Earth has a frightening array of high tech military hardware able to cause mass destruction in a multitude of different ways.
For G-War II there could be a T-bomb that unleashes a wall of fire, a secretive E-bomb that fries electronic circuitry, daisy cutters and bunker busters.
US military contractors are constantly refining the army's tanks, planes and helicopters.
The bullets seem to go faster, higher, longer.
The sky has become the limit for satellite-guided precision missiles.
The Air Force recently admitted that it is carrying out research on a 9.5 tonne Massive Ordnance Air-burst Bomb that would pack the punch of a small nuclear bomb.
Eventually it would replace the "Daisy Cutter" as the biggest conventional US bomb.
The "Daisy Cutter", 7.5 tonnes and so big that it has to be rolled out of a C-130 transport plane, was first used in Vietnam to clear jungle for helicopter landing zones. It was also used, at least twice, in Afghanistan last year to root out al-Qaeda fighters holed up in mountain caves.
The GBU-28 is one of many "Bunker Busters", also used against the Taliban and al-Qaeda, that will also be a threat to Iraqi commanders in their bunkers. Congress has just been told about a new nuclear version that pierces through even the hardest rock before exploding but that will not be ready in time for this campaign against Saddam Hussein.
The military is also believed to working on new microwave beam weapons, a so-called E-Bomb, that would fry electronic circuitry and wipe out surrounding electronics with a burst of electro-magnetic energy.
John Pike, a research director for GlobalSecurity.org consultants, said it would be valuable for knocking out Saddam's communications with his troops.
General Tommy Franks, the head of Central Command who would lead any invasion of Iraq, tried to avoid the topic when asked about E-bombs and other "offensive electronics" at the start of the month.
But he eventually gave in. "That is a non-lethal sort of weapon. It may be that under certain circumstances one would see that. You mentioned the E-bomb, and I can't talk to you about that because I don't know anything about it."
In the same vein, the blackout bomb, BLU-114B, which can be dropped by planes or cruise missiles and can cause massive damage to electricity grids in urban areas.
In Afghanistan the US Air Force also used the thermobaric bomb, which has become one of the most fearsome weapons in the US arsenal, unleashing a rapidly expanding wall of fire that sucks the oxygen out of undergound spaces and incinerates everything in its path.
The US military first used the BLU-118S to clear cave complexes used by al-Qaeda fighters in the mountains of eastern Afghanistan.
One of the most important weapons against Saddam however should be the satellite-guided Joint Direct Attack Munition (JDAM), the hottest "smart" bomb in the US arsenal because it is cheap, accurate and can find its target in any weather.
It has been the weapon of choice of the US Air Force and Navy since the NATO air war against Yugoslavia in 1999.
So many were used in last year's Afghan campaign that the Pentagon stepped up production to replenish supplies ahead of any war against Iraq.
According to the Defense Department, 90 percent of the bombs used in 2003 will be laser guided rather than just dropped from planes. The smart bombs made up just 10 percent of those used in 1991.
The Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missile (JASSM) is another new guided missile. It can hit a target more than 200 miles (320 kilometers) away, but has not yet been tested in battle.
The beauty of the JASSM is that its range allows fighter jets and bombers to launch it against bunkers and other heavily defended targets from a safe distance.
Admiral Stephen Baker at the Center for Defense Information also highlighted major improvements in other arms. The AC-130 flying gunship, for example, can now received live images from cameras on Predator RQ-1A drones.
Afghanistan showed how the unmanned drones have become an essential part of any conflict. The Marines have a drone that can detect snipers in case of an urban battle in Baghdad or a robot controlled bomb.
Back down to Earth, the decisive tank for the US Army will be the Abrams M-1A2, which is fast and can kill from a distance. These have been improved just like the military's Apache AH-64 Longbow helicopters, Super Hornet F-18s and Tomcat F-14 fighters.
Copyright © 2003, Agence France Presse
