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Iraq's Superbombs: Homegrown Ordinance?

by jordan | February 26, 2007 at 01:20 pm | 385 views | add comment

This is what the Pentagon does not want the American people to even think about: that their armed forces can be held at bay by homegrown weapons, not by an international conspiracy of "evil". This makes sense, though: whatever country you are from, if an invading army patrolled your streets you would most likely fight them by any means necessary, from throwing bricks to using your industrial capabilities.

The real problem here is that the US-led forces have no real, tangible objective in Iraq, whereas the insurgents do. With this in mind, it hardly makes any sense to send MORE troops into this meat-grinder.

Where are Iraq's superbombs coming from, really? The Pentagon is claiming -- again -- the the Iranian government supplied the deadly "explosively formed penetrators" (EFPs). But the more you study these devices -- which use an explosive charge to a convert disc-shaped metal 'lens' into a high-velocity slug capable of smashing through thick armor at an extended range –- the more likely they seem to be home-made in Iraq.

Demsharp The LA Times' Andrew Cockburn noted last week that "U.S. troops raiding a Baghdad machine shop came across a pile of copper disks, 5 inches in diameter, stamped out as part of what was clearly an ongoing order."

If that's accurate, then building in Iraq become EFPs a fairly easy operation. Given the appropriate design (which is the tricky bit) any machine shop can turn them out by the hundred. (Today's New York Times notes that the disks found in Hilla, Iraq "look like a thick little alms plate or even a souvenir ashtray minus the indentations for holding cigarettes.")

It took years for the American military to learn how to make these weapons on the fly. And yet insurgents in Iraq already have essentially the same capability. It's an example of what has elsewhere been called 'Intermediate Technology' which takes a lot of time and money to develop, but when it exists it can be quickly and cheaply copied.

The ability to pick up and use this sort of technology gives an edge to guerrilla forces. As we have seen, insurgents have proved adept at using the Internet, mobile phones, and even interactive DVDs.

The .50 cal sniper rifles also allegedly found in Iraq having been bought originally by Iran are another interesting case. Steyr-Mannlicher, accused of supplying the rifles have given an official statement saying that they have not had any serial numbers to check, so these weapons cannot be confirmed as being those supplied to Iran. Further, they observe that:

"Since the international license for these guns has already expired, these weapons can be copied any time by other producers."

I am reminded of the story of the rifles in the Northwest Frontier. Over a hundred years ago, the British were amazed to find that their tribal opponents were armed with modern Martini-Henry rifles. Efforts to find where they were being imported from were fruitless. The Martini-Henrys were counterfeit, perfect copies manufactured locally in blasksmiths' forges; these days replica AK-47s (and who knows what else) are turned out by the same method Intermediate technology can be powerful when it is used constructive ends.