rapper noe fra Boston Globe 20.april som forteller om planene for bruk av
billige "dumb bombs" (inkludert flere splintbomber) i de neste 5 månedene.
Vi får se når Løwer forklarer oss dette med "egne ord".
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CRISIS IN KOSOVO
In budget, move to 'dumb bombs'
By Fred Kaplan, Globe Staff, 04/20/99
...
WASHINGTON - Inside President Clinton's request yesterday for $6 billion in
emergency funds to pay for the war in Yugoslavia lies a clue that NATO's
air strategy is about to shift from a near-total use of accurate ''smart
bombs'' to a greater emphasis on more destructive but inaccurate ''dumb
bombs.''
Most of the extra money being requested - $5.1 billion - will go for fuel,
munitions, and other war supplies. The rest will pay for aid to Kosovar
refugees and to the countries in the region that are giving them shelter.
In the month's worth of bombing to date, officials said, the Defense
Department has spent nearly $1 billion - $698 million for munitions (bombs
and missiles), and $287 million for operations (fuel and spare parts).
The emergency request of an additional $5.1 billion breaks down to $1.5
billion for munitions and $3.6 billion in operations.
The vast boost in spending for operations makes sense, given the
substantial increase in US aircraft, helicopters, and personnel moving into
the area.
However, it might seem strange, at first glance, that even with all this
extra weaponry, the munitions over the next five months will cost only
twice as much as the munitions fired in the campaign's first 27 days.
Deputy Defense Secretary John Hamre was asked about this at the White House
news briefing, and his explanation revealed an impending change in the
bombing strategy.
''In an operation like this,'' he said, ''you use more of your precision
munitions'' - cruise missiles and laser-guided smart bombs - ''in the very
early days of the operation. ... Later on in the operation, of course, it's
what we call `dumb bombs,' you know, it's gravity ordnance or semi-aided
devices, and that's largely what we're using now.''
Cruise missiles cost more than $1 million apiece. Laser-guided bombs cost
around $100,000; the highly advanced AGM-130s, fired from F15E aircraft,
cost $800,000. Gravity bombs - the old-fashioned kind that just fall
through the air, then explode - are much, much cheaper.
Until now, NATO and Pentagon briefers have said over 90 percent of the
weapons dropped have been precision-guided munitions. This explains why
their cost over just the past month has amounted to nearly $700 million.
If the total cost of munitions over the next five months comes to only $1.5
billion, as Clinton's supplemental request states, then the mix of weaponry
is likely to include very few smart bombs.
John Pike, a military specialist at the Federation of American Scientists,
said yesterday evening: ''If one takes these numbers as a blueprint for the
war, then this thing starts to look more like Vietnam than Desert Storm.
Five months of dropping dumb bombs on Kosovo - that will turn the place
into a moonscape.''
Already, videos shown at NATO's daily briefings reveal a growing use of
cluster bombs, which subdivide into as many as 200 pieces. Cluster bombs
are generally used to attack wide areas, where troops or weapons may be
spread out, as opposed to pinpointing targets.
''I think you can surmise that we're going to start dropping a lot more
cluster bombs,'' Pike said.
There might be several reasons for this shift. First, there are only a
limited number of targets for which precision-guided munitions are most
useful - bridges, railroad lines, and factories in well-populated areas,
where commanders want to hit the target without damaging the surrounding
houses.
Commanders might want to hit some of these targets again - for example,
bridges, after they have been repaired - but there is no need to re-hit all
of them.
Second, NATO briefers have said future air campaigns will focus more on
hitting Serbian forces in the field. Many of these troops are hidden or
spread out. Some analysts have noted it makes little sense to drop a
$100,000 bomb in order to hit a single Serbian tank, especially since the
bomb might miss. It is cheaper, and may be more effective, to spread out a
cluster of bombs, in hopes of hitting a lot of targets - tanks, trucks,
whatever - in the general area.
The shift has little to do with the availability of accurate weapons. The
Air Force is running low on cruise missiles, but not on laser-guided bombs.
''We've got tons of them and we're continuing to build more,'' a
high-ranking Pentagon official said yesterday.
Apart from Hamre's statement of a new strategy, Clinton's request for more
money may raise other questions when Congress starts considering it next week.
Jacob Lew, director of the Office of Management and Budget, said yesterday
that the $5.1 billion, requested for the military, may exceed what is
actually needed.
However, some circumstances could arise that would make the sum end up
being less than what is needed. In particular, the $5.1 billion assumes no
ground troops are introduced into the area, either in a combat or
peacekeeping role. If such troops are needed, Lew said, ''that would be a
separate action ... and that would in fact require further funding.''
Clinton yesterday urged Congress to pass the request quickly, saying,
''there are literally lives hanging in the balance.''
Hamre said, ''We really do need it by the first part of May'' to avoid
facing ''a genuine readiness crisis.''
This story ran on page A17 of the Boston Globe on 04/20/99.
© Copyright 1999 Globe Newspaper Company.
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Knut Rognes