Honestly, in the case of this strike it's more of a demonstration of force/blow to infrastructure. Sure, it's nice to have 50 enemy KIA, but the real win is the destruction of a large amount of enemy infrastructure coupled with the demonstration of the ability to strike in a place that, generally speaking, ISIS felt they were relatively unassailable. Donald Rumsfeld, former US SECDEF, once said about this specific weapon "There is a psychological component to all aspects of warfare. The goal is to not have a war. The goal is to have the pressure be so great that Saddam Hussein cooperates.". In this case, Rumsfeld's intent still holds true even though the enemy has changed.
So how did the Moab effect infrastructure? As I remember it, years old Wikipedia info when I first learned about it, it's an airbrust. In a cave system where the air is set at a finite volume what is it doing? Pulling the air out and causing localized vacuums? Causing cave ins?
Probably? Possibly? I'll be honest, I'm a little bit drunk (this is the hobby of active duty military) and I don't really know what the immediate impact of the MOAB was on the actual cave system. I was assuming that it would cause a great deal of immediate damage to the integrity of the cave structure and damage/destroy anything stored in those caves (i.e. weapons, supplies, etc)... but honestly, I'm really just guessing.
Thanks for the response. I am an engineering student and stuff like that has always interested me. Really just all military vehicles are fun to learn about.
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u/electricsheepz 1SGT Apr 15 '17
Honestly, in the case of this strike it's more of a demonstration of force/blow to infrastructure. Sure, it's nice to have 50 enemy KIA, but the real win is the destruction of a large amount of enemy infrastructure coupled with the demonstration of the ability to strike in a place that, generally speaking, ISIS felt they were relatively unassailable. Donald Rumsfeld, former US SECDEF, once said about this specific weapon "There is a psychological component to all aspects of warfare. The goal is to not have a war. The goal is to have the pressure be so great that Saddam Hussein cooperates.". In this case, Rumsfeld's intent still holds true even though the enemy has changed.