There Are No Words Depleted Uranium Radiation in Iraq Equals 250,000 Nagasaki Bombs

[David]

GAU-8 Avenger
The AN/GAU-8 30mm Avenger seven-barrel gatling gun, mounted only on the A-10 attack jet, is a 30mm, 7 barrel gattling gun used primarily in the air to ground role as a soft target killer and tank buster. This aircraft is used for close-air support in attacking ground threats such as armored tanks and vehicles, and also serves as a forward air control observer for sighting ground threats and directing air strikes against enemy targets. The gun, mounted in the fuselage nose of the A/OA-10 Thunderbolt, is produced by [ex General Electric] Martin Marietta Armament Systems.
According to some sources, the GAU-8 fires 1,800 rounds per minute, with the higher 4200 rd/min rate having been deleted in the 1980s. However, the A-10 can only fire in high rate, which is 3900 rounds per minute. Low rate went out with the use of the batelle gas diverting device, and although the A-10 no longer uses the batelle device, the limit on high rate only has remained, since it made no tactical sense to fire in low rate and have to spend that much more time on final to get the same number of rounds on target.


The gun fires a mix of both high explosive incendiary (HEI) and armored piercing incendiary (API) ammunition. The PGU-13/B HEI High Explosive Incendiary round employs a standard M505 fuze and explosive mixture with a body of naturally fragmenting material that is effective against lighter vehicle and material targets. The PGU-14/B API Armor Piercing Incendiary round has a lightweight body which contains a sub-calibre high density penetrator of Depleted Uranium (DU). In addition to its penetrating capability DU is a natural pyrophoric material which enhances the incendiary effects. The PGU-15/B TP Target Practice projectile simulates the exterior ballistics and provides a ballistic match to the HEI round and is used for pilot training.
A typical combat load for the GAU-8 would include 1,100 rounds of 30mm high explosive or armor piercing ammunition. The 30mm API is mixed with 30mm High Explosive Incendiary (HEI) at the factory and is called Combat Mix Ammunition. The ratio of API to HEI rounds in the Combat Mix is 4:1. Combat mix is a sequential mixture of DU and HEI rounds in which 1 HEI round followed by 4 DU rounds are fired by the AN/GAU-8 gatling gun. DU is the primary munition for the A/OA-10 in a combat environment.


Depleted uranium results from the enriching of natural uranium for use in nuclear reactors. Natural uranium is a slightly radioactive metal that is present in most rocks and soils as well as in many rivers and sea water. Natural uranium consists primarily of a mixture of two isotopes (forms) of uranium, Uranium-235 (U235) and Uranium-238 (U238), in the proportion of about 0.7 and 99.3 percent, respectively. Nuclear reactors require U235 to produce energy, therefore, the natural uranium has to be enriched to obtain the isotope U235 by removing a large part of the U238. Uranium-238 becomes DU, which is 0.7 times as radioactive as natural uranium. . Since DU has a half-life of 4.5 billion years, there is very little decay of those DU materials. When manufactured as 30mm rounds, each DU projectile contains approximately 4,650 grains [0.66 pounds (lbs)] of extruded DU, alloyed with 0.75 weight percent titanium. The projectile is encased in a 0.8 mm-thick aluminum shell as the final DU round.
During Operation DESERT STORM the Air Force fired 30mm Armor Piercing Incendiary (API) munitions using a depleted uranium [DU] penetrator slug from the GAU-8 Gatling gun mounted on the A-10 Aircraft. The 148 A-10s that deployed to Saudi Arabia flew 8,077 combat sorties. The Air Force fired a total of 783,514 rounds of 30mm API in the Gulf War. Since each round contains approximately 0.66 pounds of DU, the Air Force expended a total of 259 tons of DU in the Gulf. The armor-piercing capability of the DU projectiles fired from A/OA-10s proved exceptionally effective in countering threats from the Iraqi tanks so that a successful ground offensive could then be achieved.


At times 30mm DU rounds misfire in the A-10?s GAU-8 cannon. These "hangfires" have to be cleared and removed from the gun barrel, potentially exposing ground crews to airborne DU. Technical data available to maitenance crews does not provide an accurate means for determining the status of rounds in an unsafe/jammed gun, and revisions are in progress.


Specifications
number of barrels 7
Feed: Linkless feed system
calibre 30 mm
Ammo types PGU-14/B API Armor Piercing Incendiary [DU]
PGU-13/B HEI High Explosive Incendiary
PGU-15/B TP Target Practice
muzzle velocity 1067 meters/second
Armor penetration 69mm at 500 meters
38mm at 1000 meters
Maximum Range over 1,250 meters
Accuracy 5mil, 80 percent
80% of rounds fired at 4,000ft hit within a 20ft radius
cannon weight 281 kilograms
cannon length 6.40 meters

[David]

Operation Desert Storm was the first conflict to see the extensive use of DU munitions and armor packages. The new rounds gave coalition forces a marked operational advantage. Unit histories from the Gulf War contain many anecdotes attesting to the effectiveness of DU "silver bullets." One armor Brigade Commander described looking on in "amazement" as his soldiers (who in training had never fired at targets beyond 2,400 meters [1.5 miles]) routinely scored first-shot kills on targets out to 3,000 meters (1.9 miles) and beyond. DU armor gained an equally impressive reputation. A story illustrating DU?s offensive and defensive renown involves a heavy armor M1A1 tank that had become mired in the mud.

The unit (part of the 24th Infantry Division) had gone on, leaving this tank to wait for a recovery vehicle. Three T-72?s appeared and attacked. The first fired from under 1,000 meters, scoring a hit with a shaped-charge (high explosive) round on the M1A1?s frontal armor. The hit did no damage. The M1A1 fired a 120mm armor-piercing round that penetrated the T-72 turret, causing an explosion that blew the turret into the air. The second T-72 fired another shaped-charge round, hit the frontal armor, and did no damage. The T-72 turned to run, and took a 120mm round in the engine compartment and blew the engine into the air. The last T-72 fired a solid shot (sabot) round from 400 meters. This left a groove in the M1A1?s frontal armor and bounced off. The T-72 then backed up behind a sand berm and was completely concealed from view. The M1A1 depressed its gun and put a sabot round through the berm, into the T-72, causing an explosion.

The Army, Air Force, Navy and Marines all used DU to some extent in the Gulf.



Larry here is a good link for military DU use study.

http://www.gulflink.osd.mil/du/index...n%20the%20Gulf

[David]

M1A1 lost to friendly DU fire.

Quite a difference between what the DU round can do and what a standard round can do to M1A1 armor as related in the story above.

[David]

DU Sabot Round with Penetrator

[David]

105mm DU Sabot Round

[Seascamp]

Yikes!!!!! Another episode of stretching a condom over a beach ball I?d say. Depleted Uranium (DU) is not weapons grade plutonium or anything like it at all. Tiz a high-density heavy material that is very effective at punching small deadly holes in very thick armor. According to the math, Impact Force is equal to Velocity squared times Mass. So if ya crank up the velocity and put that behind a super heavy, dense but small diameter mass like an anti-tank round from an Abrams tank ya got a tank killer right off. The UD penetrating rod may only be about 25 mm in diameter but comes howling out of a 120mm bore at super high velocity enclosed in a sabot (shoe). The shoe is promptly shed and what ya have left is a high velocity ?dart? that delivers so much impact energy that it literally melts it?s way through the armor and inside the target turret there is a deluge of molten armor steel. Saddam and Co. had the same penetrating rod anti-tank ammo but I don?t think it was DU but probably was whatever the Russians were putting on the market that was heavy and high density. I saw that the Taliban even had some of those Russian made sabot rounds for their ancient and rickety T-54 tanks.
At a time Clinton and Co. were looking at ways to eliminate DU anti-armor rounds from our weapons inventory but they didn?t succeed. Good thing in that it provides a very distinct and measurable battlefield advantage. There is a minute but measurable rad level from a DU projectile but the only risk I have heard of is breathing the dust from inside a destroyed tank and ingesting the heavy metal dust. The lesson there is to wear a dust mask if rubbernecking around inside a tank destroyed by a US anti-tank sabot round.

My guess is that the author got about half the information, got some bad or levered techno data and dashed to the bank with it in world class Chicken Little form.

Scamp.

[reconeil]

First-off thanks for somewhat validating my old nukes versus: "New & Improved" products, like the 50 or so lost(?) or unaccounted for(?) nuclear suitcase bombs and/or BIG TIME missing or supposedly non-existant WMDs. I guess I didn't really go too much overboard comparing the old to the new, as comparing handgrenades to: "Daisy Cutters" in my commentary/thread: "SHAZAM"?

Still, and what little I know about nukes (new or old),...I just can't actually believe the numbers and info given in this this thread by you. According to such figures, every man, woman and child in Iraq (American and Coalition Forces inclusive) should be dead, dying of radiation, or at minimum be blue and glowing in the dark BY NOW.
Gladly, such is not the case

I guess it's that old story of: "Believe only half of what you see, and nothing of what you hear (read also?)" Hey,...wait-a-minute. That would mean that no one should even believe: "TOTALLY Honest Neil"? Hell,...we certainly can't have that, Friends. And,...that's no lie.

Neil

[colmurph]

I wouldn't worry too much about "Suitcase Nukes" as they have a limited "Shelf Life" and the ones the Russians made have already passed the point of no return. If some have been sold, they're duds.