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| China-Japan-Koreas |
| US to sell 'bunker-buster' bombs to SKorea |
| 2009-06-04 |
| The United States has agreed to sell "bunker-buster" bombs to South Korea that are capable of destroying underground facilities in North Korea, a military official said Tuesday. Washington recently approved the sale of GBU-28 bombs, which were used during the 1990-91 Gulf War to destroy underground command centres in Iraq, a defence ministry official told AFP on condition of anonymity. The laser-guided bombs, which could be used to hit North Korean missiles and aircraft stored underground, will be delivered to South Korea between 2010 and 2014, South Korea's Yonhap news agency reported. It said that in the event of war South Korean jet fighters would carry the bombs to attack underground targets such as North Korea's nuclear facilities and artillery hidden in caves. South Korea also plans to purchase other high-tech bombs such as JDAMs, JASSMs and GBU-24s, Yonhap said. |
| Posted by:3dc |
| #8 We have been taking satellite pictures for years. We may not know the location of every tunnel and underground bunker but we probably have the location of every ventilator shaft in the country. That's all it takes. |
| Posted by: Skunky Glins 5*** 2009-06-04 18:50 |
| #7 Moose, I think the intent of these is to neutralize some of the heavy artillery aimed at Seoul in the opening minutes of a conflict. Might not destroy the guns, but surely would close some of the tunnel/cave openings. |
| Posted by: rwv 2009-06-04 12:20 |
| #6 While these are good for soft targets in typical ground, they are pretty useless against the granite mountains of North Korea, which would be like using a BB gun against a block wall. The Norks have been continually mining tunnels in those since way back when. |
| Posted by: Anonymoose 2009-06-04 10:55 |
| #5 We see you and raise you some bunker busters, Norks. |
| Posted by: DarthVader 2009-06-04 10:24 |
| #4 Sounds like another application for the secret terror tagging tech. |
| Posted by: Lumpy Elmoluck5091 2009-06-04 10:18 |
| #3 I do wonder how well we and SK know the locations of the Nork tunnels. In sediments reasonably shallow tunnels can be detected by ground penetrating radar (which can, I think, be run airborne now.) If they run rails or wires in them, then they can be detected by airborne magnetic surveys. The DMZ 'shouldn't' be showing any changes, so it's easier to monitor than most places which would have all sorts of legitimate signals to sort out from the tunnels. Deeper tunnels, in hard rock, should be detectable my sonic means during the excavation phase - explosives and mechanical drills make distinctive sounds that travel well in the rock. I would guess that if we don't know where the tunnels are then it is because we don't care. |
| Posted by: Glenmore 2009-06-04 08:43 |
| #2 The GBU-24, which Korea already has, can mate w/ a 2000lb bunker buster. The GBU-28 uses a 5000lb bomb. More interesting is using the F-15 to drop a stack of 6 JDAMs on 6 pre-programmed tunnel entrances during a single pass. |
| Posted by: ed 2009-06-04 00:42 |
| #1 You mean we haven't already? |
| Posted by: CrazyFool 2009-06-04 00:29 |