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![]() "MCN" wrote in message ... Is there a version of the Mk 84 'iron bomb' that contained depleted uranium (DU) to give the Mk 84 a better performance as bunker buster? I'm asking as a spokesperson for the State Department said on 8 June 1981 in reaction to the Israeli attack on the Iraqi Osirak/Tammuz 17 nuclear reactor: "US-supplied uranium weapons used in the raid..." The only way those dropped Mk 84 could have been a kind of uranium weapon would be that they contained DU. Would make sense to me, but I never read that such a version of the Mk 84 existed. Anybody any info about that? First off, a cite for your quote would be nice. Secondly, having just finished a 7-week targeting course for USAF, I only found "regular" Mk 84s in the inventory when I was weaponeering. It is possible though, that the Israelis could have ginned up something on their own. |
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The spokesman of the State Department Dean Fischer made the statement on
behalf of the White House and the State Department on June 8, 1981 in a public announcement at Washington, D.C. in reaction to the public announcement made by Israel at 15:30 local time on 8 June 1981. Reagan was informed three hours after the attack on an informal level. (Source: Jack Anderson in Washington Post on 23 June 1981) The first link in indirect speech to this I found on page 154 in the book "Two Minutes Over Baghdad" by Amos Perlmutter, Michael I Handel and Uri Bar-Joseph, 2nd expanded edition, London 1982, 2003. Following from that I found a couple of newspaper articles from June 9, 1981 and later on quoting part of the announcement directly and other indirectly. Some were referring only to "special weapons" , or even to "weapon systems". The focus was in all on the US aircraft used in the raid (F-16, F-15). But that sources are all on paper, no URLs. The announcement is not in the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library at http://www.reagan.utexas.edu/ and not on the official websites of the White House or State Department. Both are - surprisingly - starting with the day G. W. Bush took office, the time before has been transferred to other websites that don't offer full search into the archives. It is good possible that there were errors in the statement as the Pentagon first thought that the Israelis had used PGMs instead of 'dumb' iron bombs. |
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AIRCRAFT MUNITIONS - THE COBALT BOMB | Garrison Hilliard | Military Aviation | 1 | August 29th 03 09:22 AM |