Did the US Nuke Syria?

[Exsubmariner]

So Al-Jazeera is reporting.....

[ QUOTE ]
The sources were quoted as saying that Israeli F-15 and F-16 jets provided cover for the US planes.

The sources added that each US plane carried one tactical nuclear weapon and that the site was hit by one bomb and was totally destroyed.



[/ QUOTE ]

So I look at the linked story and notice the photo in the lower right of the page....



and think "I've seen that kind of crater before."



At Nagasaki.

Edit: here is the Nagasaki Crater without the Ground Zero Marker. Note the shape of the hypocenter and the shadows.



Discuss.

[iron81]

I really don't buy this. Between satellites and seismographs, you can't detonate a nuclear weapon anywhere on earth without people noticing.

[Taso]

Al-Jazeera is usually right.

[Exsubmariner]

I'm kind of skeptical, too. There are perhaps conventional weapons that will do this sort of damage.

A nuclear reactor is steal and concrete and uranium. From a conventional weapon, I would expect there to be lots of debris. If you could find a higher resolution image, I might be able to identify something. But, it looks like there is nothing but complete atomization at the site. No debris at all.

I have been to both Hiroshima and Nagasaki, however, and the image of the site struck me as being remarkably similar.

As for satellites and seismographs, I think the Isreali's have a strong corner on that market in that part of the world. It will be interesting to see if this develops and what data from Europe shows.

[Exsubmariner]

Is that a level?

[pvn]

[ QUOTE ]
So Al-Jazeera is reporting.....

[ QUOTE ]
The sources were quoted as saying that Israeli F-15 and F-16 jets provided cover for the US planes.

The sources added that each US plane carried one tactical nuclear weapon and that the site was hit by one bomb and was totally destroyed.



[/ QUOTE ]

[/ QUOTE ]

(total speculation and talking out of my ass)

Could be a daisy-cutter?

Then again, tactical nukes can be pretty small. It might be difficult to tell the difference between a tiny tac nuke and a daisy cutter from seismographs etc.

If Israeli jets really provided cover, I would guess that the delivery plane was something big and slow-moving, which would imply daisy-cutter over tac nuke, wouldn't it?

[Exsubmariner]

[ QUOTE ]
If Israeli jets really provided cover, I would guess that the delivery plane was something big and slow-moving, which would imply daisy-cutter over tac nuke, wouldn't it?


[/ QUOTE ]

A C-130 is needed to carry a MOAB.


That's pretty slow.

A B-52 is usually the kind of vehicle certified to carry tactical nukes. They are vulernable at low altitude, which would increase the accuracy.

I seem to recall an incident recently where a B-52 was carrying tactical nukes over US airspace in violation of a treaty.....

[ALawPoker]

What an odd situation.

I totally doubt this is true. But I guess we'll find out soon enough. Like Iron said, it's tough to nuke people without people noticing.

Not that the US/Israelis wouldn't be willing to nuke countries if they could get away with it, but what are the odds they attempt such a thing if there's a chance Al-Jazeera (lol) catches them. I would think US and Israeli intelligence knows pretty damn well what Al-Jazeera is capable of, and it's way more likely this is just made up. But who knows I guess.

[ALawPoker]

Exsub, you have military experience. What are your thoughts on the likelihood?

[iron81]

If we were really going to make a secret nuclear strike, it would definately be either a B-2 or a cruise missile, those weapons have a reasonable chance to make it to their target undetected. If it were a B-52, it would be lighting up radars in Kuwait.

However, no one has the market on seismographs and satellites cornered. There are literally dozens of seismographs around the world capable of picking up a blast. However, since there is no obvious crater, a nuclear strike would have been an air burst. I find it hard to believe that we wouldn't have heard reports from either a neutral nation (wild guess, there are maybe a dozen countries flying satellites capable of detecting the blast) or reports from civilians in the area that they saw a mushroom cloud. Also, I think it would be to Syria's advantage to say if they were attacked with nuclear weapons, it would get them a lot of sympathy.