Lone Survivor_ The Eyewitness Account of Operation Redwing and the Lost Heroes of SEAL Team 10 ( PDFDrive )

antipersonnel weapon up in those caves. Its lethal radius is colossal, probably
nine hundred feet. Its flash and sound is obvious from literally miles away. The
BLU-82B is the largest conventional bomb ever built and, of course, leaves no
nuclear fallout. (For the record, the Hiroshima atom bomb was a thousand times
more powerful.)
On the upside, the Daisy Cutter is extremely reliable, no problems with wind
speed or thermal gradient. Its conventional explosive technique incorporates
both agent and oxidizer. It is not fuel-air explosive, like the old FAE systems
used for much, much smaller bombs. It’s nearly twelve feet long and more than
four feet wide.
The BLU-82B depends on precise positioning of the delivery aircraft,
coordinates gotten from fixed ground radar or onboard navigation equipment.
The aircraft must be perfectly positioned prior to final countdown and release.
The navigator needs to make dead-accurate ballistic and wind computations.
The massive blast effect of the bomb means it cannot be released below an
altitude of 6,000 feet. Its warhead, containing 12,600 pounds of low-cost GSX
slurry (ammonium nitrate, aluminum powder, and polystyrene), is detonated by a
38-inch fuse extender a few feet above ground level, so it won’t dig a crater. The
entire blast blows outward, producing overpressure of 1,000 pounds per square
inch. Hence the nickname Daisy Cutter.
The United States has never specified how many of these things were
dropped on the Tora Bora area of the White Mountains, where the al Qaeda
camps were located. But there were at least four, maybe seven. The first one,
according to a public announcement by the Pentagon, was dropped after a
reported sighting of bin Laden. We can only imagine the crushing effect such a
blast would have inside the caves where the al Qaeda high command and senior
leadership operated. Wouldn’t have been too good even if you were standing in
the middle of a field — but a cave! Jesus, that’s brutal. That thing wiped out
hundreds of the enemy at a time.
The United States really did a number on the Taliban, flattened their
stronghold in Kunduz in the north, shelled them out of the Shomali Plains north
of Kabul, carpet bombed them anywhere they could be located around the
Bagram air base, where, four years later, we were headed in the C-130.
In the fall of 2001, the Taliban and al Qaeda were mostly fleeing the U.S.
offensive or surrendering. In the subsequent years, they drifted together on the
other side of the Pakistani border, reformed, and began their counteroffensive to
retake Afghanistan.