Hailstones set off unexploded cluster bombs

Nature has a way of making things right I guess.

Story snippet:

LEBANON'S first hailstorm of the season was a blessing in disguise for cluster bomb-infested southern parts of the country - setting off series of blasts yesterday from previously unexploded bomblets. No injuries were reported.

Full Story Link:
news.scotsman.com...

For once the accidental set off of these munitions is actually a good thing instead of blowing off an arm or a leg of child. Three cheers for hailstones.

I never thought I'd be happy for hail of all things, but hooray for natural weather phenomena! But what this makes me wonder now is if weather control machines could ever be made to produce localized hail storms over minefield infested areas of the world. Such a thing could potentially be used to clear out mass amounts of explosives in places like Afghanistan for great effect if we could get such things down.

reply to post by cyberdude78


Thats actually a very interesting propsal. Imagine the time, money, and soldiers it would save to use such technology to clear fields. Though it would not guarentee 110% clearing, it would still get rid of a fair ammount of munitions.

reply to post by cyberdude78


Hail will not set off a mine, much less a modern one. Cluster munitions are above ground and exposed. Hence more potential of detonation upon impact as cluster munitions have sensitive charges.

With mines I was thinking more along the lines of setting off the triggering mechanism itself. I would think that a sufficiently sized piece of ice could probably set off a landmine if it were to hit right on the pressure device. If not then I could still see some practical applications of sending a hailstorm at an airfield. If the hailstones are large enough they could easily damage aircraft enough to require some maintenence, particularly a stealth aircraft that gets caught outside of it's hanger..

Modern mine systems can be remotely monitored and triggered, an operator can choose whether or not to proceed with detonation even after the trip wires and sensors have been triggered. Not to mention mines which are pressure, magnetic etc… sensitive which are unlikely to be detonated by hail as they are tuned for specific target signatures. And if that's not enough, mines can be deployed via artillery, aircraft, helicopters, missiles or vehicles. Modern mine laying systems are mobile, flexible and can deploy very rapidly. Tactical mine fields can be laid in a matter of seconds, depending on the system used.

Many areas of the world are no-go areas because of mass mine-laying in the last 40 years or so. The vast majority of thes mines are older soviet AP types with pressure pads. As time passes these become more unstable, detonating with very little pressure. Chechnya or the Falklands are prime examples of this, as are parts of Africa and Afghanistan. The most common type that causes regular injuries are the PMF-1 type, also known as "butterfly" or "green parrot" mines, which are difficult to detect, cheap and very common. These will take your lower leg off if you're wearing high-leg combat boots, or your foot if you're in sandles/bare foot. There are also huge numbers of locally produced versions of the old PMD series of wooden mines in these countries.

In theory, a device that creates large blocks of ice from the sky could indeed detonate this type of munition.

AT mines would be more difficult as they tend to me magnetically-influenced or require large amounts of pressure to detonate.Obviously this would be of little use against the OMZ family or any other trip-wire triggered device.