Jump to content

What air ordnance are the Israelis using in Gaza air strikes?


Recommended Posts

What the hell is the IDF dropping over there? They are leveling entire buildings with what seems like one or 2 bombs. In particular the media building in Gaza housing Al Jazeera and AP offices. The precision is incredible too. The building is situated in between 2 other buildings and they drop the whole building without touching the neighboring buildings. We saw such precision during Desert Storm, but the JDAMS or PGMs dropped on Iraqi buildings blew the building out, not collapsed it.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hit it in the middle, and the building blows inside out.

Hit it with a smaller JDAM (125, 250 lb) and hit the base, with delayed fuze, and the building buries the crater under it. That's what I'd suspect. But of course I'm just speculating.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

31 minutes ago, Ssnake said:

Hit it in the middle, and the building blows inside out.

Hit it with a smaller JDAM (125, 250 lb) and hit the base, with delayed fuze, and the building buries the crater under it. That's what I'd suspect. But of course I'm just speculating.

Yes, the delayed fuse makes total sense. I am not sure a 250lb JDAM would do the job. The whole thing looks like a professional demolition company came in and dropped the building.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Its certainly JDAM's, there has been some amazing photo's taken of them in their last few seconds,looks like Mk82's, maybe Mk83's fitted with a JDAM kit.

It seems as Nils suggests to be they are burrowing into the substructure. If you remember the WW2 earthquake bombs, they aimed them to the side of the structure,thebomb would burrow, create a camoflet when it explodes, and the bridge/structure would collapse into it. This appears to be very similar. Its why the explosions look so strange on film, they are seemingly detonating below ground.

They clearly ARE trying to avoid civilian casualties to give credit where its due.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

There is that. I would guess they are going with a lot of prefabricating, presumably bought in from abroad in some cases. Of course, as we saw with our 1960's high rises, the problem is not necessarily the components, its how you assemble them.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The IDF used a greater share of bunker busting bombs this round than ever before, in part to allow greater precision in destroying dangerous high rise buildings.

Fire the munition at an angle that allows it to bury itself beneath the building without touching it, then detonate the destroy the foundations. 

What enables this surgical operation, which we saw resulted in much fewer casualties than previous rounds, is the higher level of precision of common munitions. Instead of a CEP of 10m, munitions today have precision of sub 1m.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The pre-warnings were also an important part of keeping casualties down.  I would bet that the IAF was watching these buildings in real time, waiting to see civilians leaving beforehand, and only afterwards making the attack.

Edited by glenn239
Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 5/18/2021 at 1:37 AM, Stuart Galbraith said:

They clearly ARE trying to avoid civilian casualties to give credit where its due.

I saw a blurb which implied that for some Pals, the Israelis are looking better than Hamas.

If the IDF can maximize Hamas casualties and minimize civilians, there may be a net gain in local perception.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I dont think they are going to win many hearts and minds by bombing Palestinians. OTOH, when you see footage by Western reporters walking around the hit areas, the surgical strike capability of the IDF is really very impressive. It must mean that Hamas is not winning quite as many converts as they must have assumed they would, and that more than anything else may be why they pulled the plug on the operation. Its not 2014.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 hours ago, Stuart Galbraith said:

I dont think they are going to win many hearts and minds by bombing Palestinians. OTOH, when you see footage by Western reporters walking around the hit areas, the surgical strike capability of the IDF is really very impressive. It must mean that Hamas is not winning quite as many converts as they must have assumed they would, and that more than anything else may be why they pulled the plug on the operation. Its not 2014.

Don't confuse either side with the Borg, there are several Palestinian factions operating in Gaza, not necessarily under Hamas control nor less radical, so the bombing is also used by Hamas leadership to kill some rivals and reasert itself. Which is why they are more than happy to agree to a ceasefire after some time.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

15 hours ago, Ivanhoe said:

I saw a blurb which implied that for some Pals, the Israelis are looking better than Hamas.

If the IDF can maximize Hamas casualties and minimize civilians, there may be a net gain in local perception.

Sure, and if Hamas can get extremely precise missiles then they can better hit the Israeli military command and control without hurting any Israeli civilians.  

Quote

RETAC21 Don't confuse either side with the Borg, there are several Palestinian factions operating in Gaza, not necessarily under Hamas control nor less radical, so the bombing is also used by Hamas leadership to kill some rivals and reasert itself. Which is why they are more than happy to agree to a ceasefire after some time.

At some point the international community will reject Israeli and American arguments that Hamas is a terrorist organization on the basis of the fact that Israel and the US have deliberately allowed Hamas to rule Gaza and therefore it must be considered the government of Gaza, and if the Americans and Israelis think any differently, then they can get off their asses and occupy Gaza like should have been done 15 years ago.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

5 hours ago, Stuart Galbraith said:

I dont think they are going to win many hearts and minds by bombing Palestinians. OTOH, when you see footage by Western reporters walking around the hit areas, the surgical strike capability of the IDF is really very impressive. It must mean that Hamas is not winning quite as many converts as they must have assumed they would, and that more than anything else may be why they pulled the plug on the operation. Its not 2014.

Indeed it's not 2014.  Iran, Russia and now China are increasing influence in the region.  I think Israel's best move is to get into NATO, and NATO should let Israel come in with a declared nuclear arsenal as part of the NATO inventory,

Israelis Worry Beijing Will Increase Syrian Presence « Breaking Defense - Defense industry news, analysis and commentary

Edited by glenn239
Link to comment
Share on other sites

3 hours ago, glenn239 said:

... I think Israel's best move is to get into NATO, and NATO should let Israel come in with a declared nuclear arsenal as part of the NATO inventory...

Are you joking?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

29 minutes ago, TrustMe said:

Are you joking?

No, I'm not.  Israel is increasingly over its head and getting further into deep water.  Bibi has to go and the US needs to get boots on the ground over there to send the signal that shit has to calm down.  

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The NATO admission process is a 'black ball' one. Any one of the existing NATO nations has a veto over a future NATO admission. I can't see Israel getting all of them.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

8 hours ago, RETAC21 said:

Don't confuse either side with the Borg, there are several Palestinian factions operating in Gaza, not necessarily under Hamas control nor less radical, so the bombing is also used by Hamas leadership to kill some rivals and reasert itself. Which is why they are more than happy to agree to a ceasefire after some time.

I take your point.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...