AFP just published a very interesting account of secret NATO teams guarding Gadhafi’s weapons of mass destruction depots with bombs that were able to take out a car while leaving the occupants unhurt.
Before Tripoli fell, NATO guarded his known chemical weapons depots from the air, maintaining near constant surveillance from them and ready to drop bombs on any government troops that showed up to remove the weapons for use against Libyan rebels. When those depots fell into rebel hands, special teams of Western intelligence agents operating from the rebels’ headquarters at Benghazi moved to secure the sites.
Here’s where things get weird. Western operators protecting the weapons depots are apparenly using these “stun bombs” against anyone, rebels inclcuded, who approach the sites:
Per AFP:
Today, a team of American and Libyans, including Safi ad-Din, is based in Waddan to deal with the problems. The Americans, pistol on hips, scowled when journalists approached them, refusing any comment.
“It’s the CIA (Central Intelligence Agency),” said a senior military officer from Misrata who had met them.
The watch over the mustard gas, at Waddan as well as the two other sites whose location is kept secret, is tight, according to the Libyan expert and local fighters.
“Three weeks ago, the car of two fighters was destroyed by an air strike as they got too near the bunkers containing the gas” at Waddan, without anybody even being hurt, laughed Ahmed Misrati, a fighter.
Stun bombs had also already been used against other fighters roaming on the site some days earlier, recalled Safi ad-Din who said that all the curious ones risk an air strike if they get closer than 50 metres (yards) to the chemical bunkers.
Libyan rebels reporting that they are being stun bombed, eh? Who knows if they were really hit with a magic weapon that destroyed their vehicles but left the occupants unhurt. I’m not aware of anyone creating an air dropped version of a stun grenade. Even a low-collateral damage weapon like the Focused Lethality Munition version of the Small Diameter Bomb would put a serious hurt on the occupants of a small vehicle. Heck, maybe they were hit with a small version of those concrete bombs that France was dropping in Libya. Or maybe they were extremely well placed shots from a helicopter-borne sniper.
These tales of stun bombs could simply be the locals way of scaring off the curious. Then again, the West may very well be employing previously undisclosed weapons in the effort to guard WMD — something NATO says is a top priority.
{ 37 comments… read them below or add one }
EMP "bomb" most likely…
But it would be idiotic using them in Libya. The first dud and all the remnants of exploded bombs would be on a jet to China within the hour.
I'd say that's pretty unlikely. Expensive overkill.
yea i submitted this. werid
EMP "bomb" or concrete warheads are the most likely- other than pure misinformation.
I wouldn't want to be in a car hit with anything- rocks from overpasses kill drivers every year- a 250 lb concrete bomb could really ruin your paint job.
Most likely a EMP type "bomb" that would be my first guess.
My best guess would be a capacitor-type "bomb" that, on impact, shorts out electrical systems in the target vehicle. Sort of like a bigger, air-dropped version of the XREP shotgun-fired wireless taser cartridge.
Regards & all,
Thomas L. Nielsen
Luxembourg
Fine in theory but a lot of cars are likely to be older designs – unlike a newer car, where you just have to kill the engine management system, you'd have to blow out the entire electrics; not easy when the car is essentially wrapped in a faraday cage (see lighting strike tests).
If it was me, I'd go with a dude with an AS50 or Barratt rifle. Known, reliable technology with minimal technological prerequisites, and can be used to shoot someone in the head if they, y'know, get out of the wrecked car and walk…
You'll have no argument from me there. Even a .338 Lapua Magnum with AP rounds will reliably stop most unarmored or lightly armored vehicles by putting a nice hole in the engine.
I was simply trying to outline what seemed to me to be the most likely explanation if (IF) these "stun bombs" turn out to be a real weapon.
Regards & all,
Thomas L. Nielsen
Luxembourg
To protect Libya's WMD so that the new AL Qaeda government has them. Stupidity at work.
Maybe you missed the part where the CIA are the ones guarding the weapons, you know, so we can destroy them?
or pass them on to the highest bidder?
I am guessing like most that this would be possibly an EMP weapon. It'll kill the engine and the electronics, the people are safe and have to walk away sans vehicle.
Barrett .50 = vehicle stun bomb
Sorry, but what does that have to do with this story?
EMP Bombs in Libya isn't even close to smuggling weapons to Mexico.
"Stun bombs had also already been used against other fighters roaming on the site some days earlier, recalled Safi ad-Din who said that all the curious ones risk an air strike if they get closer than 50 metres (yards) to the chemical bunkers."
This sounds more like that the "stun bombs" are being used on people wandering around, and not just against vehicles.
The Joint Non-Lethal Weapons Directorate has tinkered in this area for years, coming up with fun stuff like the Active Denial System that uses millimeter waves to give folks that gently cooking sensation.
A likely candidate for stopping vehicles is the Radio-Frequency Vehicle Stopper – does what it says on the tin, mounted on a ground vehicle or perhaps a Growler. More interestingly, could be an aircraft mounted Laser-Induced Plasma (LIP) weapon – using ultra-short pulse lasers to knock out vehicle electronics, but also producing a series of flash-bang like pressure waves temporarily confuddling the occupants.
Stun Bomb = BS alert
* Some ragheads blow up the WTC.
* A real war over fake WMDs and fake ties to 911 (I-rak was the only ME stinkhole not involved with AQ).
* GFC. Millionaires bailed out.
* Some nobody become POTUS.
* More millionaires bailed out.
* OBL taken out, after living for 5 years in plain site. Proof: "we say so."
* A fake revolution.
* G/K/Qadaffi sodomized and killed on TV.
* Fake bombs guarding fake WMDs.
Hollywood is powned by reality, and we're only 1 decade in. David Icke is starting to make sense.
Um, lol? Tin foil hat much?
Anything to keep their mind controlling waves out!
Douchebag! Keep banging on that 55 gal drum down on wall street!
The teabagger doth presumeth too much, methinks. The OWS hippies and the banksters are both rent-seekers.
"No boots on the ground" huh?
Ah, but for some reason CIA and special forces don't count.
No, that doesn't make sense to me either. Either they're US citizens with guns and orders to be there or they aren't. But then I'm not a diplomat.
Believe it or not, not all CIA is american.
They could simply be referring to their "assets."
A piece of advice for you, sir (free of charge, because I am at heart a nice, helpful guy):
1. If you are currently on some form of prescription medication, please see you doctor about the dosage.
2. If you are NOT currently on some form of prescription medication, please see your doctor about getting some.
Regards & all,
Thomas L. Nielsen
Luxembourg
Grumble, grumble, swearing…..Crap discussion board user interface…grumble, more swearing…..This was suppose to have been a reply to "So?" above.
Thomas L. Nielsen
Luxembourg
Not a problem. Have some non-prescription medicine.
I call it "strong coffee"…
Thanks, but I get the "Extra Caffeine – Super Strength" stuff on prescription :-)
Regards & all,
Thomas L. Nielsen
Luxembourg
I know the feeling. So excited to be first with a funny, but standard (hence the haste) putdown, that you accidentally post to the wrong part of the thread. Har, har, hardy har har.
Where are the darn WMDs, though?
I'm yet to see any footage of Gaddafi "bombing his own people". I've seen plenty of footage of negro "mercenaries" executed in the gruesomest ways possible.
"I'm yet to see any footage of Gaddafi "bombing his own people". I've seen plenty of footage of negro "mercenaries" executed in the gruesomest ways possible."
None of which brings your original post any closer to the real world, or makes it make more sense:
"Some nobody become POTUS" – so the Presidency should go only to people you know personally?
"OBL taken out, after living for 5 years in plain site. Proof: "we say so."": The best proof that OBL (I hope his 72 virgins are all 40 years old – and male) is in fact dead, deceased, shuffled off the mortal coil, etc., is that the US went public with having killed him. The US would never have done that unless they were 110% sure. Getting that wrong would be PR suicide.
"A fake revolution": Huh? You mean it was all done with Photoshop, and Gaddafi is still in charge?
Regards & all,
Thomas L. Nielsen
Luxembourg
This is really a good army article EMP "bomb" are mostly like and can damage the engines
Is this the same AFP that the Dissident Frogman had to instruct as to the difference between cartridges and bullets? Truly amusing…….
http://www.thedissidentfrogman.com/blog/link/like…
Maybe this a concussive device that literally "stuns" humans. You got guys driving in a desert. They get stunned, the car goes out of control, and they softly crash.
"softly crash" – isn't that an oxymoron? A bit like "military intelligence", "business ethics" and ""Microsoft Works"?
Regards & all,
Thomas L. Nielsen
Luxembourg
This guy may have the explanation. Cool site too. http://aviationintel.com/?p=3878