/FLASH - BENT SPEAR// Pakistani AF Base/possible nuclear site attacked by Taliban

[TLAM Strike]

The target is the Minhas Air Base in the town of Kamra, located around 40 miles outside Islamabad. The attacked is believed to be conducted by the Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP)

...

a Telegraph report from 2009 said the site was thought to house Pakistan's nuclear weapons...

http://www.businessinsider.com/gunmen-have-attacked-and-entered-kamra-air-base-in-pakistan-thought-to-house-nuclear-weapons-2012-8

This is the 3rd attack on the base? :o

Info on the base:

The Wah Cantonment Ordnance Complex consists of three nearby armament facilities in Wah (Pakistan Ordnance Factories - POF), Kamra (Air Weapon Complex - AWC), and Taxilia (Heavy Industries Taxila -HIT). One or more of these facilities is probably associated with the weaponization of Pakistan's nuclear devices. ... The Air Weapon Complex at Kamra is devoted to air-to-surface munitions, among other activities, and would probably have at least some connection with the development of air-delivered nuclear weapons.

http://www.fas.org/nuke/guide/pakistan/facility/kamra.htm

The base also is used in the development of UAVs and the JF-17 multi-role fighter.

[Oberon]

http://www.lumsreview.com/files/taliban.jpg
"Our words are backed with nuclear weapons!"


Right, now I have that out of my system, IIRC Skybird brought this up last year when they first started raiding that base. Quite frankly I'm surprised they haven't gotten their hands on radioactive material already, although would they actually be able to use a weapon as anything other than a dirty bomb? Would a free fall weapon be able to be detonated with conventional explosives? :hmmm:

[XabbaRus]

Not in the normal way. Normal explosives would just make a mess.

The explosives on a nuc are designed for a certain shape of blast to compress the uranium or plutonium core and have to be timed to perfection.

Unless of course they want to go for the simple little boy type bomb where you fire a plug of uranium into a larger one but even that doesn't guarantee a fissionable explosion.

Atom bombs are great. In theory the simplest bomb to make, in practice something entirely different.

[Oberon]

That's what I thought, and surely if they're after the materials to make a dirty bomb it would be a LOT easier to just raid hospitals and get the radioactive material from them?

[Gargamel]

Not in sufficient quantities.

A few hospitals may produce enough material to make a dirty bomb that gives people cancer, 20 years from now. They probably wouldn't get enough before security really clamped down.

Now, if they discreetly obtained the material, over time......

[Oberon]

Now, if they discreetly obtained the material, over time......

Well, they've had over a decade... :dead: