naraburns nihil supernum
1yr ago
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Israel-Gaza Megathread #1
This is a megathread for any posts on the conflict between (so far, and so far as I know) Hamas and the Israeli government, as well as related geopolitics. Culture War thread rules apply.
Somebody elsewhere in this thread linked to a youtuber who seems to be an expert on tunnel warefare. He just posted another video talking about tunnels and countermeasures and countercountermeasures: https://youtube.com/watch?v=mMaQn6eBroY
Really good stuff. Here are some highlights:
The tunnels are huge
It costs about $1/meter to dig the tunnels, and takes about a month to do 1km. Labor is cheap, they've been working on this forever, and there are probably a shitload of tunnels.
The tunnels are huge, and elaborate (at least where he is), there is plumbing, electricity, etc.
Tunnels are insanely easy to defend. You can just sit at one end 100 yards away from the entrance ,and shoot anybody who comes through the door.
Anyway, this video seems very high information density, and if you go through the guys history, he does legit seem to be an expert on this topic. Gives some insight into what this war will probably look like in Gaza.
Pour liquid propane inside could help I think. It displaces all the oxygen. And without electricity passive ventilation probably won't work well and eventually they will run out of oxygen.
Not a specialist on thermobaric weapons. My best attempts at producing such (the basic design was big vial of petroleum ether surrounded by vials of sulphuric acid and potassium permanganate all that blown by homemade semtex - I went to a strange school in the lawless 90s) didn't work well - but I think that getting the mix right and aerosol dispersion in the small spaghetti network of tunnel will be very challenging. Otherwise it may work.
You have to be advanced shade of stupid to allow yourself to be hurt from rdx and the likes. Now nitroglycerin is something I am scared to even think of attempting.
You have to be advanced shade of stupid to allow yourself to be hurt from rdx and the likes.
You were synthesizing this stuff yourself, as I understand it, rather than getting your hands on already-made commercial-grade stuff. I'm no explosives expert, but isn't the process of making this stuff at least somewhat dangerous, leaving the user at risk of blowing himself up while trying to make homemade bombs in the woods?
Have to find my high school notebooks but IIRC while making RDX there was nothing too dangerous. Of course it required nitric acid and used concentrated sulphuric acid as catalyst. don't get me wrong - those are charming substances if handled carelessly. But usually for home made bombs it is hard to find the chemical, not that hard or dangerous to make. Good thing being chemistry inclined kid in the 90s in europe was that no one cared about control of those things and there were a lot of knowlege and industrial base left from communist times.
Anyway - for home made terrorism there are a lot of more dangerous compounds, that are also easy to make - but thankfully the terrorists have not studied chemistry yet.
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Notes -
Somebody elsewhere in this thread linked to a youtuber who seems to be an expert on tunnel warefare. He just posted another video talking about tunnels and countermeasures and countercountermeasures: https://youtube.com/watch?v=mMaQn6eBroY
Really good stuff. Here are some highlights:
The tunnels are huge
It costs about $1/meter to dig the tunnels, and takes about a month to do 1km. Labor is cheap, they've been working on this forever, and there are probably a shitload of tunnels.
The tunnels are huge, and elaborate (at least where he is), there is plumbing, electricity, etc.
Tunnels are insanely easy to defend. You can just sit at one end 100 yards away from the entrance ,and shoot anybody who comes through the door.
Anyway, this video seems very high information density, and if you go through the guys history, he does legit seem to be an expert on this topic. Gives some insight into what this war will probably look like in Gaza.
Pour liquid propane inside could help I think. It displaces all the oxygen. And without electricity passive ventilation probably won't work well and eventually they will run out of oxygen.
Perhaps thermobaric weapons as a more definitive solution? Pressure wave kills everyone in the tunnel complex.
But outside it would also be a major explosion. Presumably killing many in the ultra-dense Gaza strip.
Not a specialist on thermobaric weapons. My best attempts at producing such (the basic design was big vial of petroleum ether surrounded by vials of sulphuric acid and potassium permanganate all that blown by homemade semtex - I went to a strange school in the lawless 90s) didn't work well - but I think that getting the mix right and aerosol dispersion in the small spaghetti network of tunnel will be very challenging. Otherwise it may work.
I hope that your youthful experimentation didn't cost you any body parts!
You have to be advanced shade of stupid to allow yourself to be hurt from rdx and the likes. Now nitroglycerin is something I am scared to even think of attempting.
You were synthesizing this stuff yourself, as I understand it, rather than getting your hands on already-made commercial-grade stuff. I'm no explosives expert, but isn't the process of making this stuff at least somewhat dangerous, leaving the user at risk of blowing himself up while trying to make homemade bombs in the woods?
Have to find my high school notebooks but IIRC while making RDX there was nothing too dangerous. Of course it required nitric acid and used concentrated sulphuric acid as catalyst. don't get me wrong - those are charming substances if handled carelessly. But usually for home made bombs it is hard to find the chemical, not that hard or dangerous to make. Good thing being chemistry inclined kid in the 90s in europe was that no one cared about control of those things and there were a lot of knowlege and industrial base left from communist times.
Anyway - for home made terrorism there are a lot of more dangerous compounds, that are also easy to make - but thankfully the terrorists have not studied chemistry yet.
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