Really big bomb

[Zkribbler]

Shhhh! That looks like the ship my guys are planning on hijacking.

[Zkribbler]

Shoot. Look at the numbers for one of those super cargo carriers....

GRT: 89097
NRT: 55204
L.O.A. (meters): 322.971
L.B.P. (meters): 308.00
B. MLD (meters): 42.80
D. MLD (meters): 24.6

My decoy ship would need to be as big as my target ship. Back to the ol' drawing board.

This "master criminal" bit isn't as easy as it looks.

Zkribbler: Pinky, are you thinking what I'm thinking?
Pinky: I think so, Brain. But me and Pippi Longstocking?!? What would our children look like??

[Bill3000]

Somebody set us up the bomb?

[Whoha]

Re: Really big bomb

Originally posted by Zkribbler
I writing a story in which the crooks need a really big bomb. I mean, really really big. A nuke would be great, but they're kinda hard to come by. So I need something nearly as good.

I remember about 10-15 years ago, the US came up with a new bomb. IIRC, it has about 1/4 the power of a small atomic bomb. I think it might have released aerosol particles which then ignited. I can't remember if it was the army or the air force that developed it.

Does anybody know what I'm talking about?? I certainly don't.

they aren't going to be able to transport a fuel air weapon. the big deal with atomic bombs, and then with hydrogen weapons is that they are quite small and yet detonate with a lot of explosive force. either tone down the amount of death and destruction these crooks cause, or they steal a poorly guarded nuke,buy one,whatever.

[Zkribbler]

Re: Re: Really big bomb

Originally posted by Whoha
. . . either tone down the amount of death and destruction these crooks cause, or they steal a poorly guarded nuke, buy one, whatever.

The point of the bomb isn't to cause death and destruction; it's to vaporize the decoy ship and make the Navy think the vaporized decoy was the hijacked vessel.

The problem with stealing a nuke is that the theft of the nuke would be more exciting that the hijacking of the cargo ship and my plotline would get all cattiwompus. I thought about buying a nuke from North Korea, but they'd probably charge millions for it. That's why I was trying to create an explosion that looked like a nuke.

Also having the ship destroyed by a "nuclear blast" would make the Navy spend days patting itself on the back for saving the world from al Qaeda terrorists. It'd take them forever to figure out they'd been hookwinked. When you're hijacking a cargo ship the size of an aircraft carrier, you need some time to get away and hide.

[Vince278]

Re: Really big bomb

Originally posted by Zkribbler
I writing a story in which the crooks need a really big bomb. I mean, really really big. A nuke would be great, but they're kinda hard to come by. So I need something nearly as good.

I remember about 10-15 years ago, the US came up with a new bomb. IIRC, it has about 1/4 the power of a small atomic bomb. I think it might have released aerosol particles which then ignited. I can't remember if it was the army or the air force that developed it.

Does anybody know what I'm talking about?? I certainly don't.

Sounds like a fuel-air bomb. Causes instant firestorms. I first heard them being used in Persian Gulf War I. They now have them in rifle launched grenades (hyperbaric rounds I think).

[PLATO]

Why not use a tanker full of jet fuel for the decoy...one match and wham!

Stealing oil products by piracy seems to be a fairly common event in the South China Sea anyway.

[Koyaanisqatsi]

Could always steal Clive Cussler's idea and make it an LNG tanker.

[Dr Strangelove]

Ther is, or at least was, such a thing as an air-fuel bomb. Just before the thing hits the ground it releases a spray of fuel mixture, then fires phosphate igniters into the mixture. It causes a massive implosion effect. I'm not sure what the designation of the bomb was. Reportedly the blast yield was several times greater than an equal weight of TNT.

[Vince278]

Here's a link:

[Jon Miller]

!

Originally posted by Zkribbler
I writing a story in which the crooks need a really big bomb. I mean, really really big. A nuke would be great, but they're kinda hard to come by. So I need something nearly as good.

I remember about 10-15 years ago, the US came up with a new bomb. IIRC, it has about 1/4 the power of a small atomic bomb. I think it might have released aerosol particles which then ignited. I can't remember if it was the army or the air force that developed it.

Does anybody know what I'm talking about?? I certainly don't.

uyou = rrtwerewerrrorist!

[Urban Ranger]

Originally posted by Zkribbler
But now, hee hee, I realize I don't need a nuke or even a MOAB. I can just load up the decoy ship with 50,000 - 100,000 tons of TNT, throw in some radiological waste as frosting, and make it go boom! That'd be a good fake nuke.

The problem with that is you don't get a nice burst of neutrons from that, unlike real nuclear explosions.

[Zkribbler]

Originally posted by PLATO
Why not use a tanker full of jet fuel for the decoy...one match and wham!

Stealing oil products by piracy seems to be a fairly common event in the South China Sea anyway.

I thought of something like that...but where is jet fuel refined? Is it over there in Asia, or to we import crude oil and then refine it into jet fuel here?

[Zkribbler]

Originally posted by Urban Ranger
The problem with that is you don't get a nice burst of neutrons from that, unlike real nuclear explosions.

I think I can finesse that problem. The Navy just thinks its looking for an al Qaeda's hijacked super cargo carrier. When they begin to close in --KABOOM-- it goes up in a fiery mushroom cloud. They prob'ly wouldn't be monitoring neutron detectors because they wouldn't "know" that "al Qaeda" had a "nuke" until it went off.

(But admittedly, this is a loose end. My guys are supposed to be supercrooks, and they should have planned for this.)

[Terra Nullius]

Originally posted by Zkribbler
But admittedly, this is a loose end.

I dunno. Wouldn't a plain ol' dirty bomb do the job just as well as anything?

If it's a decent size, the ship sinks fast and the navy can't really go looking for it in a hurry - so your purpose is served story-wise. And dirty bombs are very fashionable at the moment. It also suspends disbelief 'cos everyone expects terrorists to carry dirty bombs around in their back pockets.

Seems like getting too fancy with the munitions will only detract from the story. Vaporising a whole cargo ship seems like overkill. Also, if the remains are left sitting at the bottom of the sea, it leaves room for a nice little epilogue a la Titanic.

Could even be an opening for a sequel there