A top CIA official for the Korean Peninsula warned Wednesday that the U.S. should be ready
for a new provocation by North Korea on Columbus Day on Oct. 9, which coincides with the anniversary
of the founding of the political party that governs in Pyongyang.
"Stand by your phones," Yong Suk Lee, deputy assistant director of the CIA's Korea Mission
Center, said while speaking at a conference organized by the agency at The George Washington
University.
Lee did not speculate what North Korea might do, though it frequently carries out missile
launches or nuclear tests on major state anniversaries, such as the birthday of leader Kim Jong Un
or other dates associated with the lives of his father or grandfather.
As situation escalates, Defense Updates looks at a NON-NUCLEAR OPTION THAT U.S HAS WHICH
CAN SWIFTLY BRING NORTH KOREAN MILITARY TO IT KNEES.
Let us go into the details.
Nukes were first used by U.S against Japan in 1945 during the World War 2.
The US, Russia, China, and other countries have set off more than 2,000 nuclear test
blasts since 1945.
More than 500 of these explosions occurred on soil, in space, on barges, or underwater.
But most of these happened early in the Cold War — before the risks to innocent people
and the environment were well-understood.
Now we know much more.
The problem with nuclear explosions is that they create radioactive fallout.
Only a portion of a nuclear weapon's core is turned into energy during an explosion;
the rest is irradiated, melted, and turned into fine particles.
This creates a small amount of fallout that can be lofted into the atmosphere and spread
around.
A major nuclear strike on North Korea will have repercussion on the adjacent countries
namely South Korea, China, Russia and Japan, as the atmosphere is likely to get polluted
with the radioactive fallout.
This problem with nuclear waste doesn't come to picture with MOAB.
It is nick named Mother Of All Bombs.
MOAB actually stands for Massive Ordnance Air Blast.
The bomb is officially known as a GBU-43B.
The GBU-43B is the largest non-nuclear bomb is US arsenal.
The basic operational concept of MOAB bears some similarity to the BLU-82 Daisy Cutter,
which was used to clear heavily wooded areas in the Vietnam War.
Decades later, the BLU-82 was used in Afghanistan in November 2001 against the Taliban.
Its success as a weapon of intimidation led to the decision to develop the MOAB.
It was designed by Albert L Weimorts Jr, in the Air Force Research Laboratory in 2003.
The bomb was primarily developed as part of Iraq War's 'Shock and Awe' strategy.
MOAB was first tested on 11 March 2003, on Range 70 located at Eglin Air Force Base in
Florida.
It was tested again on 21 November 2003.
On 13 April 2017, a MOAB was dropped on an ISIL-Khorasan cave complex in Achin District,
Nangarhar Province, Afghanistan.
It was the first operational use of the bomb
MOAB is thermobaric weapon.
A thermobaric weapon utilizes oxygen from the surrounding air to generate an intense,
high-temperature explosion.
The blast wave typically produced by such a weapon is of a significantly longer duration
and more powerful, than that produced by a conventional condensed explosive.
The MOAB is designed to hit targets such as surface facilities, tunnel entrances and troop
concentrations.
MOABs are delivered from C-130 cargo planes, inside which they are carried on cradles resting
on airdrop platforms It is pushed out of the rear of the aircraft it's launched from and
uses GPS to guide it.
It is purposely slowed down by a parachute.
Shortly after launch, the drogues are released and bombs fall unretarded.
The bomb explodes in the air, creating air pressure that can make tunnels and other
structures collapse.
The bomb weights at about 21,500 pounds, which translates to about 9,500 kg.
For comparison, 9500 kg is what 2 full-grown African Elephants weigh, roughly.
Since it is so large, it has to be dropped from rear of cargo plane.
The MOAB, has a light 2,900 pounds aluminum casing surrounding 18,600 pounds (8,500 kg)
of explosive composition H-6 material.
The blast yield is equivalent to 11 tons TNT.
It is designed to explode 6 feet above ground and has enough power to obliterate anything
in 1000 m radius.
For comparison, Hiroshima's "Little Boy" bomb had a yield of 13-18 kilo tons whereas Nagasaki's
"Fat Man" bomb had a yield of 20–22 kilo tons of TNT.
Compared to nukes of today, even the smallest of the US military's atomic arsenal, the B-61
at its minimum configuration, has an explosive yield roughly 30 times that of the MOAB.
According to experts, MOAB costs around $16 million per unit.
So far the U.S. military has spent $314 million on the production of these.
USA has 14 of these ready of use anytime.
Since the bomb is based on relatively modest technological concept, a large number of these
can be quickly manufactured.
Kim Jong Un's media machine reported this week that 4.7 million people offered to enlist
in the North Korean armed forces in the days after President Donald Trump promised to "totally
destroy" the rogue state—and the new recruits would more than quadruple the size of the
nation's already mammoth military.
With 1.1 million people in the armed forces, North Korea already has the fourth-largest
military in the world.
North Korea is known to possess chemical weapons (CW), has demonstrated the ability to launch
long-range missile as well as has tested nuclear bombs.
A war with North Korea will be a race against time since giving North Korean chance to retaliate
will result in catastrophe.
A quick and decisive strike can be executed by U.S with its nuclear arsenal.
But nukes tend to have long-term environment impact, which may result in them not being
a favored option.
In this scenario, MOAB could be a viable option for the US military planners.
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