Thanks to Dima for the article!
Article here.
Thermobaric rounds are nasty. The fact that they haven't been declared illegal for warfare is surprising to me.
Article here.
Thermobaric rounds are nasty. The fact that they haven't been declared illegal for warfare is surprising to me.
"The fact that they haven't been declared illegal for warfare is surprising to me."
ReplyDeleteWell nukes aren't illegal either...
They haven't been declared illegal because they were never used en-masse against a populated areas. My guess is that is about to change very shortly. Even then, most of the biggest arms manufacturing countries would not join the possible treaty on limitation and prohibition of thermobaric weaponry, just as they didn't join the landmines treaty, and cluster munitions treaty. By biggest arms manufacturers I mean USA, Russia, China, as well as many smaller but prominent arms manufacturers, such as Israel.
ReplyDelete"According to the Pentagon’s 2008 policy, cluster munitions are actually humane weapons. “Because future adversaries will likely use civilian shields for military targets – for example by locating a military target on the roof of an occupied building – use of unitary weapons could result in more civilian casualties and damage than cluster munitions,” the policy claims. “Blanket elimination of cluster munitions is therefore unacceptable due not only to negative military consequences but also due to potential negative consequences for civilians.” - http://www.wired.com/2010/07/u-s-ducks-as-cluster-bomb-ban-takes-effect/
Also, after some more lurking, came across this : http://www.spiegel.de/politik/ausland/russland-und-irak-schliessen-ruestungsdeal-ueber-tos-1-raketenwerfer-a-983638.html. Looks like TOS are a part of much bigger arms deal, that includes many rocket and gun/howitzer system. 750 million euro can buy lots of artillery. Enough to level every major city taken by ISIS, and then some.
ReplyDeleteIt will be interesting to see how this will be utilised as the weapon system is quite unique(Russians consider it as heavy flamethrower) form what we have seen in Chechnya this was used on targets in line of sight sort of like close support system while staying out of range of sniper and ATGM fire.
ReplyDeleteSo, how long until the Iraqi Army loses them to ISIS?
ReplyDeleteIf they somehow manage to lose to ISIS with this in their hands... man, I don't know what to say. Kudos ISIS?
DeleteThe shia government is utterly incompetent therussians are selling them crappy leftovers at a high price no doubt.
ReplyDeleteAfter all theyve lost every battle to isis so far. The iranians might help train the militias but it will take some time, the regular army is less then useless
That is because US crappy leftovers take years to get into service, cost lot of $$$ and need lots of manpower to maintain and when used in battle proforms even worse as it needs a huge logistical support which Iraqis are unable to maintain.
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