U.S. Ready for Attacks in Severe Cold Season

Considering the adverse circumstances due to many mountain terrain and the severe cold season with the strong wind and the heavy snow starting from the mid-October, the U.S. is preparing for weapons to destroy caves, and the special weapons and equipments for bad weather.

The U.S. is expecting the highly-advanced spying satellite `Lacrosse` to play a crucial part in searching for the underground bunker of Osama bin Laden, located somewhere in the Northern-East mountainous area.

Capturing the difference between the heat emitting from the underground bunkers and the secret bases and the ground temperature, the `Lacrosse` takes pictures the suspicious spots to be deciphered by the National Security Agency (NSA) and the U.S. Space Command (USS).

The `Lacrosse` had contributed to find out and to destruct the Iraqi underground missile bases by sensing the heat released from them in spite of the thick cloud during the Gulf War.

With the sophisticated radar system and the high-resolution visual record facility, the unmanned spying aircrafts `Predator` and `Global Hawk` are also expected to lead the U.S.`s winter attack by identifying the targets in the night time, and even under the snowy weather as well as the cloudy weather.

In order to destroy the underground bunkers, the US armed forces are likely to use the cave destructing bombs, which were upgraded from the bunker destruction bombs used to annihilate the Iraqi underground bases during the Gulf War.

Unlike the GBU 28 directed by the laser beam, the cave destructing bombs are directed to the target by the spying satellite and are designed to explode after perforating 6 meter under the concrete or rocks, and 30 meter under the ground. For the targets that are covered with rocks too thick to penetrate, the bombs can lead the additional bombs to be released after destroying the cave entrance.

The U.S. press reported that the cave destructing bombs could identify the targets precisely to destroy from outside 32 km range irrespective of the weather.

Paik Kyung-Hak stern100@donga.com