Monday, August 5, 2013

Mark 77.

This is coolbert:

That Mark 77 bomb a new one on me. American incendiary weapon.

That replacement for napalm bombs?

That inventory of napalm and napalm bombs from the era of the Vietnam War having been destroyed some time ago.

Napalm considered to be a "diabolical weapon" outlawed! A weapon causing unnecessary suffering.

But incendiary weaponry NOT totally having been discarded.

An American inventory of the Mark 77 bomb existing and having been used in combat during the various Gulf Wars and Middle East conflicts in a SPARING MANNER!

Mark 77 having a fuel mix NOT exactly the same as napalm, but nonetheless incendiary and deadly.

And used according to doctrine and tactical considerations against targets impervious to conventional weapons and employed on a strict basis only against enemy troops where civilians are not present.

So it is said! I would think the film footage of a woman in Islamic dress afire from an incendiary bomb would go viral in seconds.

"The Mark 77 bomb (MK-77) is a US 750-lb (340 kg) air-dropped incendiary bomb carrying 110 U.S. gallons . . . of a fuel gel mix which is the direct successor to napalm."

"The MK-77 is the primary incendiary weapon currently in use by the United States military. Instead of the gasoline, polystyrene, and benzene mixture used in napalm bombs, the MK-77 uses kerosene-based fuel with a lower concentration of benzene . . . The mixture reportedly also contains an oxidizing agent, making it more difficult to put out once ignited"

"Use of aerial incendiary bombs against civilian populations, including against military targets in civilian areas, was banned in the 1980 United Nations Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons Protocol III. However the United States reserved the right to use incendiary weapons against military objectives located in concentrations of civilians [under certain exact circumstances]"

This Mark 77 also a bomb NOT allowed for export? An American "use" only? I might think so.

coolbert.

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