[Infowarrior] - Secret Rocket Balls Target WMD Bunkers

[Richard Forno]

Secret Rocket Balls Target WMD Bunkers
By David Hambling EmailNovember 12, 2008 | 11:30:00 AM
Categories: Ammo and Munitions, Bizarro, Chem-Bio

http://blog.wired.com/defense/2008/11/secret-rocket-b.html

The Pentagon has a new secret weapon to neutralize sites containing  
chemical or biological weapons: rocket balls. These are hollow  
spheres, made of rubberized rocket fuel; when ignited, they propel  
themselves around at random at high speed, bouncing off the walls and  
breaking through doors, turning the entire building into an inferno.  
The makers call them "kinetic fireball incendiaries." The Pentagon  
doesn't want to talk about them, but published documents show that the  
fireballs have undergone tests on underground bunkers.

There are plenty of bombs which could destroy a lab, and bunker- 
busting weapons can tackle hardened underground facilities. But  
blowing up WMDs is a not a good idea. Using high explosives is likely  
to scatter then over a wide area, which is exactly what you want to  
avoid.

Two special high-temperature incendiary bombs –- named "CrashPAD" and  
"Shredder" -- were quietly rushed into service for the use against WMD  
few years ago. CrashPAD is based on the Mk.84 bomb and is intended for  
soft targets; the BLU-119/B Shredder is a modified BLU-109 bunker- 
buster for hardened or underground targets. The filler for both is a  
combination of explosive and incendiary, which is more effective than  
explosive alone, but hardly safe. An explosion causes overpressure and  
release a plume of hazardous material. However, without any explosive  
the incendiary will not be adequately dispersed.

The incendiary must also maintain the temperature for a prolonged  
period, to ensure that anything dangerous is destroyed. That means  
heating up the entire structure for more than just a few seconds.  
Existing incendiaries tend to burn fiercely but quickly.

One solution is replacing the standard explosive or incendiary with a  
load of kinetic fireballs, described in this proposal. Each fireball  
is a hollow spherical shell with a hole in it; when the inside is  
ignited, the hole acts as a rocket nozzle. The kinetic fireballs eject  
an extremely high temperature exhaust which will heat up the  
surrounding volume to over 1,000 f within seconds. Their random  
ricocheting around ensures that they will fill any space they occupy,  
and they are capable of diffusing throughout a multi-room structure.

This really is rocket science. The inventor, Kevin Mahaffy, was an  
engineer at Air Force Research Laboratory's Rocket Propulsion  
Division, and spent three years as the Chief of the Motor Branch  
overseeing solid and hybrid rocket propulsion. Mahaffy's company,  
Exquadrum Inc., has received contracts from the Pentagon's Defense  
Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA) which is tasked with tackling WMD  
threats.

The DTRA acknowledges that the fireball project progressed under an  
SBIR program completed in 2006. The culmination was a 2,000 lb BLU-109  
bomb, filled with a payload of fireballs, and tested against a multi- 
room bunker. DTRA would not comment on any more recent developments.  
However, I discovered a later contract running from 2006-2008, which  
indicates that the fireballs were taken further -- possibly into some  
kind of low-rate production. The DTRA declined to comment further and  
suggested that I try filing an Freedom of Information Act request -- a  
polite way of telling me to go away. I contacted Mahaffy directly  
about the fireball technology, but he was understandably unable to  
comment even on uses not related to the DTRA work.

The kinetic fireballs might be an effective way of dealing with  
chemical and biological WMD safely. They might also be effective  
against nuclear facilities, as again they can effectively spread  
destruction throughout a complex without breaking it open and  
spreading radioactivity.

Smaller fireball payloads have been suggested for shoulder-fired  
rockets and grenades for tactical use. The DTRA is known to be  
interested in a payload for the 84mm SMAW rocket launcher for agent  
defeat; at present, ground forces have no tactical options for dealing  
with a suspected chemical/biological lab operated by terrorists or  
others.

They might find other uses for the fireballs as a "low collateral  
damage technology." A warhead filled with fireballs offers a way to  
take out all the occupants of a building without causing it to  
collapse, and without damaging any adjacent structures. No blast, no  
fragmentation. Of course incendiary weapons can cause media and  
political backlash, but as the increasing deployment of thermobarics  
has shown, this need not be an obstacle.

For the present kinetic fireball technology seems set to stay on the  
secret list . And if you're running a chem/bio weapons lab and  
assuming they won't risk attacking you -- be afraid.