BREAKING!! Emergency forced jets to drop 4 unarmed bombs on Great Barrier Reef: US official

The bombs were dropped roughly 16 nautical miles south of Bell Cay in the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park. The U.S. official said the pilots and commander selected a location at sea where the risk of reef damage would be minimal. The official described it as a “deep channel,” saying it was about 60 meters (about 197 feet) deep.

This won't end well...

"Each Harrier dropped two 500-pound bombs: one BDU 45 and one High Explosive GBU 12, for a total of four. The BDU 45s are inert and the GBU 12s were unarmed when released, so none of the bombs exploded.

A U.S. official explained that the chance that one of the two bombs could still explode is extremely remote."

Fishy as hell.........

No pun intended......... 5 stars!

shit happens.

Alien attack

[link to thediplomat.com]

Didn't Australia just agree to trade in the Yuan?

[link to blogs.wsj.com]

Sound like "US" warning to me!

[link to www.globalsecurity.org]

Guided Bomb Unit-12 (GBU-12)
Paveway II
The Guided Bomb Unit-12 (GBU-12) utilizes a Mk82 500-pound general purpose warhead. The operator illuminates a target with a laser designator and then the munition guides to a spot of laser energy reflected from the target. The GBU-12 is a member of the Paveway II series of laser guided bombs (LGBs). These weapons are hybrids. At the core of each is a bomb: a 500-pound Mk 82 for the GBU-12, a 1,000-pound Mk 83 for the GBU-16 and a 2,000-pound Mk 84 for the GBU-10. A laser guidance kit is integrated with each bomb to add the requisite degree of precision. The kit consists of a computer control group at the front end of the weapon and an airfoil group at the back. When a target is illuminated by a laser - either airborne or ground-based - the guidance fins (canards) react to signals from the control group and steer the weapon to the target. Wings on the airfoil group add the lift and aerodynamic stability necessary for in-flight maneuvering.

YIKES



and while y'all think that is all Ive got to say...Im actually off researching this

OMG

Anonymous Australia ‏@AuAnon now
Inevitable #wargames outcome. Great Barrier Reef #Australia bombed [link to nbcnews.to] #TS13 @AdeleGoldie @Muzzray @jaraparilla @akaWACA

Simple, do you know enough about this "bomb" capabilities that would make the official story "plausible" ? None of it is right to me, the Coral Reefs are Australia's very valuable and protected sea's- the whole story doesn't seem plausible as far as "running out of gas".
I consider this "a shot over the bow" to Australia. And I bet the Prime Minister does as well.

Last Edited by Trubind1 on 07/20/2013 12:40 AM

Honestly, if they are unarmed bombs, why not just fill a metal casing with concrete and iron to simulated weight.

These had to be live bombs and they are only saying they are "inert" to quell public concerns, imo.

[link to www.globalsecurity.org]

See this link about these bombs

Heidi Steen ‏@heidisteen11 now
Australians outraged after unarmed bombing by the United States: [link to nbcnews.to] #p2 #tcot #pol

I'm outraged and I'm not even Australian!

yup

dianna graf ‏@diannagraf now
Why isn't Australian Media reporting US bombing of the Great Barrier Reef World Heritage site? [link to nbcnews.to] via @enquerre

These are basically concrete and metal. who cares

Well im Australian and I dont give a shit.

They DONT waste million dollar bombs on practice runs.

They use "Empties".

I know..I was in the airforce.

They dont waste REAL BOMBS...even unarmed ones cost a fortune.

When the time came to drop the ordnance, the pilots were told that the range was not clear. After trying several times, they began to run low on fuel and realized they could not land with the bombs they were carrying.
“They chose to save the aircraft,” one U.S. official said, explaining that the Harriers could not land with the ordnance and they could not continue to wait with their shortage of fuel.

That makes me question why they couldn't land with the bombs ("empties") they were carrying?? Do you happen to know why that would be? I was never in the Airforce, but you may be able to explain this to me and others who may not understand this part of the "story."

Unfortunately we aren't going to find any true answers to this any time soon so this thread will die and people will forget about this until something, hopefully not too devastating, comes of it.

Incorrect.

Of course they use live bombs in training. Not as much as inert BDU's, but they do.

I would know... I was in the U.S. Air Force for nearly a decade and guess what my job was? AMMO. 2W0.

I know this shit like the back of my hand.

Shit happens, and sometimes they gotta drop the load- such as this case.

Happened over Utah a few times since I was there, one time the pilot dropped two live 82's (Don't remember config.) over the MSA (Munitions Storage Area) and one actually did detonate. Pretty crazy. No one was hurt, but as I said- shit happens. His choice was either drop it there or drop it over a populated area... he obviously chose the correct place.


Anyways, guy- yes, the Air Force uses live bombs for practice.

Edit- Also- they are FAR from "million dollar bombs" lol.

Meh.

Civilian aircraft in distress and needing to dump fuel over the Reef do more damage than practice ordnance and an unarmed GBU - neither of which were in danger of exploding.

Cargo ships transiting the Reef and leaving behind a thin smear of fuel oil or the contents of their bilge, or tonnes of rubbish do more damage than practice ordnance and an unarmed GBU - neither of which were in danger of exploding.

Tonnes of rubbish? WTF?

[link to www.news.com.au]

"It is believe the rubbish - mostly plastic materials - had been collected from along the east coast by ocean currents before being dumped at the remote beach. The local population - with a head count of nine - is not suspected to have significantly contributed to the mess."

US military forces are responsible for ecological rape and pillage in a lot of areas of the world (Puerto Rico and former bases in the Philippines are just two), but that hasn't occurred in this case.

Besides, Australian Defence Force EOD personnel will recover the ordnance, so problem solved.

Thank you for the info

They aren't empty per se. The BDU's are inert meaning they have a concrete filler to simulate weight. The other two bombs were live. (Filled with actual explosive material.)

The issue would be weight, but more importantly if they were low on fuel- say they couldn't make the first landing attempt- they would be in a hard place trying to land with live bombs at that point. Ya know?

Anyone who knows a little about AF and bomb configs can tell you about the issue with F-16's carrying a MK84 lol. I know it's not the same as this story, but goes along with your question-

The F-16 can take off with an '84 hanging under her- but there is no way to land it with the bomb still attached. A pilot HAS TO drop that mother one way or another. BIG (2,000 pound) bomb on a little plane... BIG boom if he tried to land with it lol

So wouldn't that mean 2 of the bombs they dropped were live? And what would the consequences of those bombs, if any, pose to the great barrier reef? I appreciate your insight : )

The BDU's ARE filled with concrete to simulate weight.

The other two live bombs were made unarmed by the pilot. He has the option of arming or not upon dropping. He chose not to arm them, thus they were unarmed upon drop.

They still contain the explosive filler obviously, but they shouldn't detonate.

"Dumb" bombs are actually very safe really. It takes a lot more to set one off than you'd think. There's a whole chain of events that has to happen for the main charge to go, and that's called the explosive train. Just FYI.

Yes, that makes absolute sense. But it says the bombs were unarmed so what would be the problem in that situation?