MAF to send team to probe SAF live firing exercise...
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ermm..wat a thought..
anyway...read frm tim huxley's book that there is a high possibility that we hav fuel-air explosives...
wow..
thats a veri good weapon....explosion the size of a small tatical nuclear warhead... 
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only the big ones lah... the small ones are used to cut LZs in jungle... pretty clumsy weapons really... u drop them off the back of a c-130 and it floats down on a parachute... hardly something u use for precision bombing...
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Originally posted by CX:after the last anthrax scare after 9-11, it should be clear to all that it is not as hard as one migh think to make stuff like anthrax...
in fact, if anybody follows the NY times, it is actually quite easy to make germs but germs for military purposes... thats a different question... any country with a moderately sophisticated bio-tech industry can culture micro-organisms of any kind given the raw materials, equipment and funding... its definitely not as easy as making explosives with fertilizer but its not as hard as making a nuke either...
germs can be more easily acquired than uranium and plutonium (NY times reports that u can even buy them via mail-order from US with very little restrictions) and u don't need to buy a lot to make germ weapons... just one sample that u can culture into many many more...
the problem is not with making the germs, but with treating it with the delivery agent... u can't just spray germs and expect it to work the way u want it...
stuff like anthrax spores especially need to be treated with a special delivery agent to reduce the static charge between them so the don't stick to each other and "float" better... thats why it showed up in a white, fine, powdery form... so people will breath it in and die, not just land on their skin and itch... (pulmonary anthrax kills quickly, other forms are not as deadly...)
so think about it... how hard is it to (a) make germs, (b) keep them safe till needed and (c) deliver them effectively... my answer? not very...
but i wouldn't be interested in anthrax anyway... i don't agree with germ warfare... its repulsive and impossible to contain... its too unpredictable to be effectively used... at least nukes u can control the kiloton yield and estimate the damage from ground zero.
mother nature on the other hand, can be a quite a bitch if u mess with her... -
Originally posted by CX:
in fact, if anybody follows the NY times, it is actually quite easy to make germs but germs for military purposes... thats a different question... any country with a moderately sophisticated bio-tech industry can culture micro-organisms of any kind given the raw materials, equipment and funding... its definitely not as easy as making explosives with fertilizer but its not as hard as making a nuke either...
germs can be more easily acquired than uranium and plutonium (NY times reports that u can even buy them via mail-order from US with very little restrictions) and u don't need to buy a lot to make germ weapons... just one sample that u can culture into many many more...
The strain that you can aqcuired from commercial labs via mail order are of reduced virulence.
the problem is not with making the germs, but with treating it with the delivery agent... u can't just spray germs and expect it to work the way u want it...
stuff like anthrax spores especially need to be treated with a special delivery agent to reduce the static charge between them so the don't stick to each other and "float" better... thats why it showed up in a white, fine, powdery form... so people will breath it in and die, not just land on their skin and itch... (pulmonary anthrax kills quickly, other forms are not as deadly...) Correction : Not pulmonary anthrax but rather respiratory anthrax that is the most fatal and yet more likely to be contracted.
so think about it... how hard is it to (a) make germs, (b) keep them safe till needed and (c) deliver them effectively... my answer? not very... My field of study lies in the genetic manipulation of micro organsim and the industrial production and storage of these agents.
My comments are your answer. a) Making germ is easy given the state of molecular biology technologies today. The genome of all virulent agents such as marburg, ebola, lassa eg has already been deciphered. The difficult thing would be to understand their infection cycle and what each part of the genome is responsible for what and how they interact. The terrifying premise of modern molecular biology is that hybrid and designed BW agents are now a possibility eg lets say u combine the virulence of influenza with the long latent period of HIV. You can have an agent that can spread swiftly without any overt sympton. b) Keeping them safe? Storage of such agents are not overly difficult. the agent in your example anthrax is remarkably resilient and can survive extremely long exposures(we are talking about decades here) without suffering degradation. c)delivery - that is the difficult part of the equation
but i wouldn't be interested in anthrax anyway... i don't agree with germ warfare... its repulsive and impossible to contain... its too unpredictable to be effectively used... at least nukes u can control the kiloton yield and estimate the damage from ground zero. Let me introduce you to some recent concept in BW technology. One is called racial profiling. There are fundamental genetic differences between the different races and probes that can be incorperated into viruses and bacteria will be able to spot the differences between the racial group. Think of the implication yourself. Another is the concept of self destruction. Cells have a mechanism called apostasis which is programmed cell death. If you can engineer and modify this mechanism into the agent you want...........
mother nature on the other hand, can be a quite a bitch if u mess with her...[/b] Then again nothing will change on earth. We had been, is in and will forever be untill the sun explodes be living in the Age of the Bacteria. It is still after all the modal organism 
Man is just a blink in time -
i still think its repulsive... your enemies are not always of the same ethnicity no matter how much we wish them to be...
i find it honestly disturbing that one actively involved in the life sciences be so detached from the implications of their research...
but then again... its all in the name of a healthy discussion... so... care to share some insights on the difficulty of developing a delivery system for germs? -
I believe you are referring to daisy cutter, that is vietnam war era 1st generation technology liao, as shown in the film "outbreak".
New generation FAE warhead can be easily integrated with precision guided devices (laser guidance) to a single target. As shown in this link http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/systems/munitions/fae.htm
Thus you no need to use really big aerosol cloud of fuel for the job. Fuel price quite expansive lay
3rd generation thermobaric warhead is even more powerful and has designated as a fill-gap weapon between extra large conventional HE warhead and a small tactical nuclear warhead
BTW, now you can also use rocket, arty, catapault, or even man portable fire to deliver FAE rounds. Main usage is for clearing, countermine and to suck out enemy in deep ground entrenchment and more recently as an NBC countermeasure tools.
But if you really want to, you can develop one really damn big one airlift by a B52 bomber that can flatten the size of KL cityOriginally posted by CX:only the big ones lah... the small ones are used to cut LZs in jungle... pretty clumsy weapons really... u drop them off the back of a c-130 and it floats down on a parachute... hardly something u use for precision bombing...