Oh Russia, thou hathed learned nothing.

Hehe, and so the world will end with a bang.

then we just need china to show an even bigger one.

zzz they make weapons that will/should never be used.
Are we going backwards in time? cause i think every man woman and child in the world want peace. It just takes one person to hit the wrong butten and we will be having winter in the summer

they couldnt have made a less useful bomb.

vacum bombs are terrible in just about every respect save power, and you really do not need more power than to blow things to bits. Russia just took half a decade to say "ours is bigger", MOAB has been out since '02.

the only thing I'm curious about is their dispersal mechanism, as to get any liquid out far enough to cover that distance, its just about the only impressive thing about the bomb.

more like can never be used.

vacum bombs can, at best, only be used on a calm, somewhat humid day with absolutely no breeze whatsoever, especially for larger blasts. otherwise you get a fzzl instead of a pop.

MOAB is thermobarric, so it can even be used indoors.

this is much a do about nothing. The Russians are famous for making weapons just for publicity.


For example, they've built the world's biggest atomic bomb... so what? *yawn* We've built the smallest one. That's a lot harder to do.


Our nuke system for example basically is a nuke cluster bomb that spread mini nukes over a wide area and then detonates them all in a pattern. Causing FAR more damage then some mega nuke while using less material.



The Russians don't impress me with this... the only people they could drop that bomb on would be our mutual enemies... so it's if anything good news... but likely it just doesn't matter at all.


We've build bombs like the one they've made... we used them extensively in Afghanistan against the Taliban. how much larger is the one they've made?... and why should I care...

terrorists?

yeah... or terrorists sponsor states...

well they use it on their own people, sometimes with the politically active, not the weapons-toting active.

other than that, yeah, much to do about nothing.

Russians love to show off their shiny new cars, that sadly don't have any engine...

Its all for show...

Well, that weapon is thermobaric too. And by vacuum I would surmised they mean that just about all oxygen is consumed in the area, like a flamethrower. Maybe they're using liquid propane or something.

I know that's what I'd use to make a fuel-air bomb. Propane is extremely hot, and can have a third degree burn radius of a thousand feet. The radiant heat for that fuel is really high. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jsM7nw-Gx9c

From how they describe it, the bomb creates a pressure wave so intense that it drives most of the "air" out of the blast radius... not just oxygen but nitrogen, etc... no burned away so much as pushed away... just for a split second... apparently that shockwave is what does the damage.



I'd like to see what that bomb can really do though. The only use of such weapons is bunker busters. Or clearing patches of the jungle for landing fields...


Anyway, unless they want to do the world a favor by dropping a pill on Iran I don't see the use of such a weapon to the russians or more importantly their military contract clients. Russia trying to pump up it's arms industry and sell weapons all over the world. But the only people that want to buy from them are typically our enemies... and our enemies can't get close enough to us to use a weapon like that... let alone get some slow plane to drop it... or afford an expensive super sonic bomber... or have the balls to use it even if they had the above.


it's a thourghly pointless weapon for the russians. The US could use something like it. We have used weapons like it in the past. But I don't see the value of it to the Russians unless they use it against Chechnyans or something...

not thermobarric in the original sense, but I concede that the thing can be clasified as such

either way its utterly useless anywhere but outside on a hawaian-perfect day. feul air bombs are powerful but rarely useful.
propane burns great, but it doesnt explode as well.

precisely.

it can clear jungle, but it cannot be used as a bunkerbuster because ALL damage is propogated in the upward (or sideways) direction.

let me explain to you what the weapon does: it sprays explosive in a wide area (half spherical, usually) and then ignites it, creating a propogating wave and a very intense fireball. this creates almost knives of pressure that tear through all sorts of stuff, but if its too humid or too dry the explosive could be pushed out (or absorbed into) the air, if its even a tiny bit gusty the whole thing is blown sideways, if its raining dont even get me started...

you have to release the thing in basically ideal conditions, which makes it very much a fear rather than a useful weapon.

if it can't be used as a bunker buster then it's almost completely worthless in the conflicts either of our countries might be involved in.


if the US goes against russia the last thing we'll be using is these things... we'll be raining ICBMs on each other...

yes, I've been saying that for quite a bit now. its a HE explosion, but its no rolling fireball, so its uses are limited to just doing a lot of damage to well clumped infantry, only at its epicenter does it really have the pressure and heat nescessary to even damage a tank.

STARWARS.

too bad Russia only consideres their offence, they have never gotten out of that Cold War rut.

Doesnt work well

works perfectly well

some of our better counterweapons have a hit rate of 75%, and considering this is within the first month or so of testing, I'm pretty confident a missile shield will be up in no time.

we dont need something that can protect our entire hemisphere, although that would be nice.




besides, its not like any of the Soviet's missile silo's arent under rebel control anyhow.

actually, it didn't work well in the 80's because we didn't have the tech.


However, like anything if you throw enough money at it you can get it to work... we will have the tech soon. In partnership with the Israelis we're developing all kinds of high tech ACTIVE defensive systems.


There's also a new defensive system that makes tanks practically immune to RPGs and anti tank rockets...

See the video... they shoot down artillary shells and rockets.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IcmI6UnR4gg