>>[Secondly I have question. Namely, bullets?
What the point of depleted
uranium bullets? Shells, I understand, they're
supposed to go through
tanks. But bullets can't go through tanks. Can
they? So what's the
point putting depleted uranium tips on them?]
Michael<<
The 'bullets' the A-10 jet fires from 30 mm cannons kill tanks from the top (the thinnest part of a tank turret is the top), but also all sorts of other armored vehicles. I think it was these bullets the US 'expended' in the thousands attacking Serbian forces. Such bullets would also rip through many infantry fortifications, such as dug in positions.
.50 calibre bullets from ground fired weapons ( depleted uranium tipped ones) can kill almost any armored vehicle in use in the world militaries EXCEPT battle tanks. For that you would use direct fire of a 120 mm depleted uranium, armor-piercing, fin-stablized, discarding sabot round or a high-explosive round, the 30 mm Avenger cannons on the A-10 described above, or as the Palestinians used on one Merkava 3 this year, a large mine delivering a high explosive shaped charge.
One journalist was recently ruminating about how patriotically crazed Iraqis would pour gas down the barrels of US tanks should the invasion of Bagdhad occur, but he is, of course, delusional. Iraqi forces would try to use tank and artillery direct fire on US tanks in close urban settings, where US tanks might lose their first-round hit advantages that they enjoyed in the desert fighting of the Persian Gulf War. They would also set out obstacles to mess up the rather vulnerable tracks of the US tanks. And of course, they would place a lot of anti-tank and anti-personnel mines out for US troops to deal with.
The US government will be, needless to say, extremely reluctant to admit that depleted uranium residue is at all harmful because liability (e.g., in the form of Veterans' care) might then extend to numerous US troops and DoD civilians and contractors--many exposed simply in training situations (like all those trips I made down range to pick up shot up targets at US Army and in the US).
C Jannuzi
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