Thread: MOAB story
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Mr. Luddite Mr. Luddite is offline
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Default MOAB story

On 4/15/2017 12:48 PM, wrote:
On Sat, 15 Apr 2017 11:27:11 -0400, "Mr. Luddite"
wrote:

On 4/15/2017 10:36 AM,
wrote:

You, nor I, have any idea of what the "expiration date" is on those
bombs, so that's a pretty silly conclusion.


I do have an idea about the expiration date. I was in ordinance for 6
years. They had it set at 20 years on WWII surplus and that is why we
were shooting 12,000 rounds of 50 cal along with thousands of rounds
of 30-06 and .45. (1965)
We either shot it or threw it overboard. They also said all of our 5"
ammo was going to be scrapped the next time we were in the yards but
we still threw anything showing signs of "exudate" overboard.
I assume storage has been more of an issue in ammo made that was not
planned to be shot right away like these MOABs but the guy at Eglin
said he expected these to be demilled so I am guessing they were fixin
to expire.

It's not "untested". It was designed and tested for a specific purpose.
Until now, there wasn't an appropriate target for it.

It was not tested on a real target. I don't think we have any caves we
will let the pentagon destroy. Going bang in the Nevada desert is not
a test of anything but the trigger device and perhaps the guidance
system although a BLP round would do that

You and Harry are the most cynical people I know when it comes to
things like this ... or anything new. I have far more
faith in what experts in the defense department think we need as
options.


I just have a cynical opinion whenever we are killing people and
blowing stuff up "for peace". We have had 3 major wars in my 70 years,
including the current one that has lasted 25 years and none of them
made anything better.



Come on Greg. A WWII vintage 5-inch shell or ammo for a .45 isn't the
same as a $15M bomb (not counting development costs) that undergoes
regular updating for improvements. We only built 15 of them. They
aren't "throwaways". Geeze.

As for wars and killing of people, it's been going on since we emerged
from caves. What makes you think it's going to stop in your lifetime?
It sure would be nice but it just isn't realistic.