US Marine C130 at Shannon could drop Daisy Cutter

national | miscellaneous | news report Sunday April 28, 2002 19:00 by Eoin Dubsky - Refueling Peace eoin at refuelingpeace dot org 087-6941060

As Tom pointed out in his detailed article here earlier (http://www.indymedia.ie/cgi-bin/newswire.cgi?id=2338&start=70), the American military aircraft that was recently refueling at Shannon airport is a multi-purpose tool for the war. When not providing aerial refueling to other military planes, this plane can be used to drop "Daisy Cutter" bombs.

America's BLU-82 "Daisy Cutter" bomb is in many ways like a common terrorist's car-bomb. It is roughly the size of a Micra and is filled with 5,700 kg of explosive 'slurry'. This watery mixture of ammonium nitrate and aluminium powder is released on impact and forms a fine mist in the air. When ignited the huge explosion can incinerate everthing/everyone for up to 600m.

The Guardian website have a good flash presentation of how the bomb works (http://www.guardian.co.uk/flash/0,5860,588916,00.html).

The US military uses C130 transport planes, such as the one seen recently at Shannon airport, to drop these bombs. The daisy cutter is pushed out the back of the plane and lands somewhere below about 30 seconds later. "Surgical" use of weapons it aint!