DU shells?Also, I hear reports of DU shells and the usual screams of dirty nuclear warfare. Typical, though it's not like Hamas have anything warranting such ordnance.

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DU shells?Also, I hear reports of DU shells and the usual screams of dirty nuclear warfare. Typical, though it's not like Hamas have anything warranting such ordnance.
The Israeli tanks have DU shells available, and uranium = nukes![R_H] wrote:DU shells?Also, I hear reports of DU shells and the usual screams of dirty nuclear warfare. Typical, though it's not like Hamas have anything warranting such ordnance.I doubt sabots would be ammunition of choice in the engagements that will be/are happening in Gaza. What idiots are claiming nuclear warfare is going on?
According to the IMI site, the sabots are tungsten. The ones currently being produced at least.Beowulf wrote:The Israeli tanks have DU shells available, and uranium = nukes![R_H] wrote:DU shells?Also, I hear reports of DU shells and the usual screams of dirty nuclear warfare. Typical, though it's not like Hamas have anything warranting such ordnance.I doubt sabots would be ammunition of choice in the engagements that will be/are happening in Gaza. What idiots are claiming nuclear warfare is going on?
Hell, even DU's friendly planet-saving alternative, tungsten, is also toxic. Not that the facts matter to people who get their panties in a knot about uranium and radiation and nukes etc. Israel isn't into IFVs, so I'm not sure which vehicles (other than their patrol boats) mount 30mm autocannons. In the footage broadcast near the Israel-Gaza border before the incursion, I wasn't able to see any vehicles other than the heavy APCs and Merkavas.Admiral Valdemar wrote:I believe most 30 mm autocanon rounds are DU, so that might explain it too. The point of contention here is the "uranium" in DU, nevermind that any heavy metal is inherently toxic.
Like Hamas claiming it has captured a soldier, or after the incursion, Hamas not revealing how many casualties it has taken. Why does the media even bother depending on Palestinian sources (and not questioning what the Palestinian reporters are saying and broadcasting) for its reports on the situation in Gaza? It's too bad Israel isn't allowing international journalists into Gaza.Coyote wrote:The area is rife with hysterical reporting and over-inflated claims. The Hezbollah attempts to doctor evidence for heightened hysteria I mentioned earlier; remember the Iraq reports a year or so ago where a woman claimed that bullets were fired into her house and held up two unfired rounds to "prove" her point; now the Taliban claims that 5,220 foreign troops have been killed by them in Afghanistan.
Hyperinflation of claims in combat, either of personal prowess or suffering, is par for the couse with the region. Claiming that "dirty nuke" warfare is being used is probably being done to stir sympathies. That DU rounds have developed a bad reputation certainly won't help matters much.
Sounds like they're unclear on the meaning of the word depleted.CJvR wrote:One was quite shocked when I explained how DU was less radioactive than natural uranium.
A Golani soldier managed to single-handedly foil an attempt to kidnap him during nocturnal operations in the Gaza Strip overnight Sunday, Israel Radio reported.
Soldiers from the IDF's Golani infantry brigade were fighting in the northern part of the Gaza Strip when they entered a house on which they had previous intelligence indicating that it was used as a Hamas command center.
Upon entering the house, the soldiers discovered entrances to several tunnels, which the Hamas terrorists holed up in the house had used to escape underground to neighboring houses. According to the report, the terrorists were shooting into the building when the soldiers entered.
One of the soldiers reportedly followed the gunmen into a tunnel and managed to contain several Hamas fighters in an underground firefight, before teaming up with his comrades again. Two IAF helicopters were scrambled to support the infantrymen, Israel Radio said.
The military assessed that the Palestinian terrorists were trying to lure the soldier to go after them alone into the tunnel in an effort to kidnap him.
In related news, the IDF dismissed Hamas claims that the group had succeeded in kidnapping two soldiers. A statement by the IDF spokesperson said the army does not comment on "rumors and mendacious reports" issued by Hamas, and emphasized that if an incident of Hamas kidnapping a soldier were to occur, the army would break the news to the public in a proper and timely manner.
Some do, but it’s irrelevant because in the entire IDF, you will not find one single infantry fighting vehicle with an autocannon! They simply do not use that type of vehicle, nor any other AFV with that sort of armament, unless you want to count some obsolete self propelled anti aircraft guns which are not going to use DU shells either. The IDF is a force of tanks with big guns, and APCs with nothing heavier then .50cal. They don’t doctrinally accept the IFV concept, and they can’t afford the things anyway. The guns on Apache and Cobra gunships don’t use DU either. They do have some autocannon on patrol boats, I cannot think of a rational reason why patrol boats would ever be armed with kinetic ammo.Admiral Valdemar wrote:I believe most 30 mm autocanon rounds are DU, so that might explain it too. The point of contention here is the "uranium" in DU, nevermind that any heavy metal is inherently toxic.
That's highly exaggerated- it's only in cases where Hamas claims "we've kidnapped two soldiers" and the IDF says "nuh-uh" that media will report the stories of both sides, and considering the fog of war, the fact that such abductions have happened before in a comparable situation, and the fact that no journalists are even allowed to enter Gaza you can hardly fault them for it.Coyote wrote:It's the business angle of the media: controversy and atrocity sells.
If the Israelis say the Moon is made of rock, and the Palestinians say itis made of green cheese, the media will report "controversy about the Moon" as if both sides were valid so as to keep the pot stirring.
What about strafing runs by fixed wing aircraft? On that note, do that even have any aircraft that would carry DU rounds?Admiral Valdemar wrote:The only source I could think of was the Apaches for those reasons stated, and even that I found bizarre given the total lack of any use for DU rounds in that theatre.
Skimmer, they started deploying the IFV (or APC?) version of the Merkava IV. Granted, it doesn't seem to have anything more than a .50 cal gun from the looks of it.Sea Skimmer wrote:Some do, but it’s irrelevant because in the entire IDF, you will not find one single infantry fighting vehicle with an autocannon! They simply do not use that type of vehicle, nor any other AFV with that sort of armament, unless you want to count some obsolete self propelled anti aircraft guns which are not going to use DU shells either. The IDF is a force of tanks with big guns, and APCs with nothing heavier then .50cal. They don’t doctrinally accept the IFV concept, and they can’t afford the things anyway. The guns on Apache and Cobra gunships don’t use DU either. They do have some autocannon on patrol boats, I cannot think of a rational reason why patrol boats would ever be armed with kinetic ammo.Admiral Valdemar wrote:I believe most 30 mm autocanon rounds are DU, so that might explain it too. The point of contention here is the "uranium" in DU, nevermind that any heavy metal is inherently toxic.
Saw video footage of a couple of these things detonating. Looks like some sort of area-effect weapon; you can briefly see what looks like maybe a bus that bursts and looses a cone of glowing projectiles that sure look like they create explosions when they hit the ground. Certainly not flares.Kanastrous wrote:![]()
I don't think the 30mm cannons on the Apaches fire anything but HE or HEDP. I know that the A-10 can't fire kinetic penetrators because the sabots would get sucked up by the engines. The same probably goes for helicopters.Admiral Valdemar wrote:The only source I could think of was the Apaches for those reasons stated, and even that I found bizarre given the total lack of any use for DU rounds in that theatre.
None of that changes the fact that many will leap on such rumours and weave their little tales of impossibly stupid bullshit. Some of the blogs I've read in the past about Iraq in 2003 had some truly fucked up concepts in them to do with DU, along the lines of the rounds sucking people out of buildings as they flew past and detonating in mini-mushroom clouds of fallout.