MOAB aftermath

[hdmahnken]

I haven't posted in forever but I feel like this video would be interesting to some people on this part of Shadowspear, the US Air Force Special Operations forum, as it pertains to something that is part of JTACery or just dropping bombs period. Has anyone ever wondered what the aftermath of the MAOB might look like considering that it has about a mile long blast radius? Looks devastating. Watch the video. I wonder what the JTAC/FO/JFO's face looked like after getting this drop approved.

Heads up the video does not include any graphic subject material. Pretty cool though.

 

[Gunz]

Battle Damage Assessment: It didn't kill enough of those fuckers.

 

[Red Flag 1]

I

 

[Topkick]

I wonder if that AK-47 will still fire?


Seriously, I'd like to hear what some of you warriors think about the use of the MOAB. Was it worth it or just a waste of money?

 

[Diamondback 2/2]

Battlefield testing.:-" I'm sure it had the desired effect in the media...

 

[DA SWO]

Battlefield testing.:-" I'm sure it had the desired effect in the media...

I still think that was part of it, and to mind-fuck everyone else.

 

[Gunz]

I wonder if that AK-47 will still fire?


Seriously, I'd like to hear what some of you warriors think about the use of the MOAB. Was it worth it or just a waste of money?

If it prevents just one of our guys getting wounded, it's worth it. There's a lot of crap we can waste our money on...killing our enemies is not and should never be one of them.

 

[Marauder06]

I wonder if that AK-47 will still fire?


Seriously, I'd like to hear what some of you warriors think about the use of the MOAB. Was it worth it or just a waste of money?

I think it fulfilled the Commander in Chief's intent, which was likely to have a use-of-force to show we are "doing something" in Afghanistan under the new administration.

Militarily (and based only on the info in this thread) I'm not sure how effective it was. The video showed a big pile of rubble... something that is almost literally everywhere in Afghanistan. With no "before" images, it's hard to do a good assessment of effects. What did that brown rubble look like before?

I also noticed a few trees and buildings still standing. One tree even still had green leaves on it. I guess I was expecting... mini-Hiroshima or something. This definitely wasn't that.

Additionally, the most interesting thing they found on the OBJ was... a broken AK-47? Where are the weapons? What about documents or supplies? More importantly, where are the bodies?? "We estimate 94 ISIS fighters KIA." OK great, but where are they? I'm sure there were people killed, but based on the video the body count is 0. If a scrub tree can survive that explosion, wouldn't a DshKa? Or even an RPG? Weapons crates? Loose ammo? SOMETHING?

I'm not sure when they went in on the ground, but I think it would have been most useful to go in, heavy, right after the smoke cleared and the ground stopped shaking. That way you can capitalize on the shock effect, police up any wounded, and get a good feel for what effect, if any, this big bomb had.

I expect this means that the bad guys will just start moving their ops even more into population centers, where we won't use things like this.

 

[Il Duce]

I think it fulfilled the Commander in Chief's intent, which was likely to have a use-of-force to show we are "doing something" in Afghanistan under the new administration.

Militarily (and based only on the info in this thread) I'm not sure how effective it was. The video showed a big pile of rubble... something that is almost literally everywhere in Afghanistan. With no "before" images, it's hard to do a good assessment of effects. What did that brown rubble look like before?

I also noticed a few trees and buildings still standing. One tree even still had green leaves on it. I guess I was expecting... mini-Hiroshima or something. This definitely wasn't that.

Additionally, the most interesting thing they found on the OBJ was... a broken AK-47? Where are the weapons? What about documents or supplies? More importantly, where are the bodies?? "We estimate 94 ISIS fighters KIA." OK great, but where are they? I'm sure there were people killed, but based on the video the body count is 0. If a scrub tree can survive that explosion, wouldn't a DshKa? Or even an RPG? Weapons crates? Loose ammo? SOMETHING?

I'm not sure when they went in on the ground, but I think it would have been most useful to go in, heavy, right after the smoke cleared and the ground stopped shaking. That way you can capitalize on the shock effect, police up any wounded, and get a good feel for what effect, if any, this big bomb had.

I expect this means that the bad guys will just start moving their ops even more into population centers, where we won't use things like this.

The only thing about the 'intent' portion is what I've read is GEN Nicholson made this call on his own - no consultation with the higher brass. I guess that's within POTUS' intent in that he wants 'the military' to have more freedom to operate. But, I do wonder if given the choice what 'message' the administration would want to send with the MOAB.

I find it really hard to have confidence in assessments of intent from the administration (outside what was talked about on the campaign trail) as there's so much spin after the fact.

This seems similar to the Syrian airstrikes - which POTUS did decide and directly authorize - in that it played pretty well to a domestic audience (though much better with the base than the general public - but still better there than most of the administration's moves) but less well internationally. It's really hard to tell - at least for me - how much of that was the intent ahead of time and how much was just spur-of-the-moment and if it shakes out well - great - if not, the administration is going to say it was still great and anyone who says otherwise is FAKE NEWS.

 

[Gunz]

A little shock and awe demonstration for the local bad guys.

Maybe it didn't accomplish much, but I don't have a problem dropping tons of ordnance. It's all good. How about thirty B52Ds running CAS in direct tactical support of ground units dropping three thousand 500lb bombs on enemy positions. Maybe you kill only forty or fifty dudes...but the four hundred survivors have shit running down the backs of their legs for a week. And nightmares for the rest of their lives.

One MOAB is probably a bargain compared to Arc Light.

 

[Red Flag 1]

[Q

 

[DA SWO]

cnn and others are saying we killed the ISIS Leader in Afghanistan, and some other regional warlords plus 35 expendables, err, I mean fighters.
2 Rangers died and I'll drink one for the Ranger in the sky tonight.
If the MOAB scattered the enemy units, making the Ranger mission less risky, then drop some more.
More tomorrow, ambien is kicking my ass tonight

 

[Topkick]

I agree with most. I think it was used for battlefield testing and flexing muscle. Also, a campaign strategy Trump used was to say he would bomb the shit out of ISIS so he acted on it by dropping the mother.

 

[hdmahnken]

I figured out what really happened and I think this should have been obvious. This is official zoomed in enhanced imagery of where the MOAB hit. Im thinking the reason there were no bodies is because everyone had cooked goat for dinner. And no one was there immediately after the smoked cleared because they knew the smoking of the meat wasn't going to be finished and they knew they had to wait for just the right moment. This should have been clear from the start.

 

[Ooh-Rah]

Please, you spent way too much trying to write something funny that was not funny.

Looking at your profile, The only background you provide is "hoola hooping" so you have answered everything I need to know about how serious you take this site.

 

[Topkick]

Please, you spent way too much trying to write something funny that was not funny.

Looking at your profile, The only background you provide is "hoola hooping" so you have answered everything I need to know about how serious you take this site.

I didn't even finish reading it. I couldn't take it anymore!

 

[CDG]

Well, there's 30 seconds of my life that I'll never get back.

Admin (AWP) Edit: I really don't think that last bit was called for, hence my deletion.

 

[hdmahnken]

Please, you spent way too much trying to write something funny that was not funny.

Looking at your profile, The only background you provide is "hoola hooping" so you have answered everything I need to know about how serious you take this site.

I understand.

The "hola hooping" reference as my background info I chose to provide shows exactly how much seriousness I have and only have in seeing it as a new trend individuals do as either a legitimate hobby or to gain social media attention and does not pertain to my overall seriousness within this website or forum or the men and women who are members of this site. Look it up. Have you seen how serious some people are about it? I have.. so on a personal note I just added that as my background because in my generation some people can only put that on their resume. There is the joke behind it because its not serious and I can admit that because it is what it is, hola hooping. It doesn't have anything to do with my actually character or any message that would send to you all basically saying "hey guys I put hoola hooping in my personal background because nothing on this sight is serious to me". Not my intent whatsoever Ooh-Rah so I will delete that right after this.

I use this sight as a huge pillar of information and education which is exactly what it is made of and I recommend it to anyone who wants an in depth perception of what job they could be looking to get in to. So, I apologize for coming off as not very serious. Truly. This website has its humorous whoas and not so whoas which I have seen through the years. I posted that as do some people who believe some things are actually funny and wanted to add some humor into someones day and take a little bit of the seriousness away from the politics and uproar over this MOAB media BS and it was as innocent as that. Cant always get what you wish for. That is my honest explanation for it. I shouldn't have taken the few minutes to post that, you're right. I will apologize on behalf of everyone and hopefully down the road this wouldn't hurt my reputation as a member.

 

[Diamondback 2/2]

 

[AWP]

Alright, let's move past the sheep post and on to better things regarding the strike.