"robert arndt" wrote in message
om...
The US had and still has contingency plans for Taiwan to covertly
attack the Three Gorges Dam in the event of a Chinese amphibious
invasion of the island.
Taiwanese F-16s flying low laden with what was called a few years
back
the "Dragon's Claw" bomb would be aided by US air assets and
Intelligence on the dam. Simultaneously, covert US forces would
disrupt the air defenses around the dam while the F-16s dropped
their
special depth strikers, designed to be launched near the dam and to
plow under to a certain depth before exploding causing a series of
massive shock waves that would crack the foundations of the dam. The
F-16s would fire and turn away being refuelled by US tankers for the
return trip home.
This is old news... but it was never disclosed what exactly a depth
striker was.
I don't think you need the old bouncing bombs of WW2 (of which
Germany
also had a rocket version of their own- Kurt). But a
missile-launched
heavyweight torpedo with modified warhead might do the job well
(similar to the WW2 German L-10 or L-11 torpedo gliders).

Rob


The reason for the 'bouncing bomb' was surely that it was the ony way
that a large charge could be placed accurately.

There are at least half a dozen different guidence methods in service
in various types of missile that can achieve 1 meter accuracy.
Maverick, Martel, the old Condor, Raptor, SLAMER differential GPS, TV
with or without man in the loop etc. All that is needed is to 'super
size' them. An extraction of a MOAB sized weapon from a C130 being
one option.

One advanced version of SCUD has a TV guidence system to reduce the
accruacy to well below 50 meters. (Using a trident missile for this
sort of business with a penetrating warhead is another option)

In WW2 apart from the fact that the carrier aircraft were impossibly
vulnerable the Germans could have carried out such attacks with
Fritz-X from around 1943 onwards and the Americans with AZON/RAZON.
The Kehl-Strassbourg guidence system was compromised after the capture
of some missiles in Italy but variations of the guidence system to
restore immunity were also possible and plans existed to use the
missile on the 2 seat 4 engined version of the Arado 234C jet bomber
and thus the Germans would have had a delivery vehicle for such a
weapon.. The Fritz-X was a little small: being half the mass of
highball.

AZON's main use seems to have been attacks against railway lines in
the far east in a role it was highly effective. (23% hit rate).
This CLOS type of guidence could have placed a bomb behined a damwall.