AP in VBIEDs

It's been a bit since I've dropped a post around here, so I thought I would end the year with a "bang". A DHS bulletin that crossed my desk recently had something on it that those working the political side of rocketry might be interested in. It is unclass/FOUO, so I can only give a vague and general overview of the info to a public forum. Some of the Vehicle Borne Improvised Explosive Devices (VBIED) being used over in Iraq are being enhanced with Ammonium Perchlorate (AP). Basically, they are using artillery projectiles for the HE. To make a better bomb, the villians are packing the cargo areas around these explosives with loose AP (hundreds of pounds of it), most likely salvaged from other large missiles that CNN claims didn't exist in Iraq (ooh, did I say too much?). The resulting combination gives the simultaneous detonation of numerous artillery rounds accompanied by the massive fireball of the AP powder.

The fact that they are finding AP used in this manner over there may be one of the reasons why we are seeing the push from the BATFE(iou) to regulate AP in the US. As we all know, reservation and common sense has never been a defining trait of such government agencies, especially those with both regulatory and police powers under the same roof.

Happy New Year (from an undisclosed location), Scott

Reply to
Scott
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1) We don't use raw AP, we use APCP. You can't easilly turn APCP back into AP and rubber. 2) raw AP, which as you (and Pepcon) note is more dangerous than our APCP, is NOT on the list of explosives.
Reply to
Bob Kaplow
1- For clarification, the bulletin I viewed did not specify "raw AP" however it did not clearly id the substances found as APCP either. References to "salvaged rocket fuel" would seem to suggest APCP or similar that has been broken up (in the pictures that I've seen, the stuff has the general appearance and texture of crushed gravel). Perhaps it is raw AP or maybe it is APCP, but this is irrelevent to the point I was trying to make about our regulating bodies, as they really don't care if it is raw or mixed.

2- I made no claims either way about listings or relative level of danger posed by either, only that the managers (read politicians) of agencies who are seeking to make life tough for rocketry see that "Ammonium Perchlorate", regardless of form, mixture, or compound, is being used by terrorists to blow up our troops, therefore they think it should be heavily regulated on this side of the pond as well. It is an easy link for them to make and sell to the lawmakers, even though it is wrong.

Reply to
Scott

Wouldn't it be easier to just use unexploded cluster bombs instead??

JD

Reply to
JDcluster

Where do you get unexploded cluster bombs from? The easiest way to fight a rebel war is to use what you have or can easily obtain. They already have thousands of Soviet artillery shells hidden away in every nook and cranny leftover from years of warfare. They even come pre-packaged in a nice shrapnel producing metal case. It seems that there are plenty of projectiles, but very few of the fuses that screw into the tip to activate the charge on impact, nor very many 155mm artillery pieces lying around that they can covertly use to fire the rounds at the good people without drawing down the wrath of God upon them (lead by the US Army and Marine Corps). So, you grab a car (lots of them around and they blend into the environment quite well), lay a half dozen of these artillery projectiles on the floor boards and in the trunk, lace them together with some det cord hooked to a standard construction blasting cap smuggled in from Syria or stolen from a local contruction site (the whole country is under construction) and bury the whole mess in this crumbled up Scud rocket fuel (they have plenty of that kind of stuff hidden away also). Lay a piece of carpet over the top of anything in plain site to disguise your operation right up to the last second. Your trigger is nothing more complicated than a headlight switch wired off the car battery as a "safety" for your deadman switch (a normally closed push button switch that is depressed prior to arming the system, when this switch is released the blasting cap gets a direct connect to the car battery, this is why simply shooting the bomber as they crash into your facility doesn't help since the bomb is activated by the cowardly bastard releasing the button as they die) and if you are really fancy, you can put in a small lamp to test the circuit prior to connecting it to the blasting cap with a common 2-conductor plug in automotive wiring connector. It's a cheap and dirty way to indiscriminantly murder people.

Reply to
Scott

How do you crumble up Scud rocket fuel? I thought all the Iraqi Scud missiles were destroyed, and inspected as such. Regardless, I would not want to hide any Scud rocket fuel in my cave.

Reply to
Alan Jones

I suppose you could freeze the liquids and break it apart with a hammer... that's what I get for doing 2 things at once and not paying attention, I was actually thinking about another and much smaller solid fuel rocket, but the name hath escaped me.

Reply to
Scott

What if the gravel was GRAVEL !

like in the movie sword fish ?

they use the crushed gravel to do the same thing as the steal balls, but don't have the girl.

Reply to
AlMax

The military EOD team that defused the bomb said it was AP. I haven't met an EOD field hand yet with a political motive or who doesn't take the time to thoroughly analyze the device and components, so I'll have to go with the premise that the field report is accurate, even if it is incomplete about the origins or exact composition (raw AP vs. APCP or similar solid rocket fuel), that data may have been known but didn't make it into the agency circulated DHS report, which is not uncommon.

Reply to
Scott

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