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Astonishing video of Coalition airstrike on ISIS oil pumping station

This video really is quite something. It has been released in very high quality (sometimes in the past they have degraded the quality to make it harder for enemies to work out just how clearly they can see through their targeting pods).

The video also allows you to see the actual bomb coming into the frame of the video, following an arc and then engages its guidance fins just at the right moment at the end to hit the gear box in precisely the right place (watch the bomb come from the top left, and arc down the bottom and into the pumping gear).

It's also an interesting strike as they struck the target in just such a way as it will stuff the pump gear without actually setting fire to the well-head (oil fires are very hard to put out). ISIS doesn't have the expertise to repair this kind of damage, but once they have been driven out it can be repaired quite easily with the right expertise and equipment. And remember, the Coalition is doing 30-50 of these sort of strikes a day on various types of targets. This is just a taste of what they are achieving.

Finally, the Kurds and Iraqis really are on the offensive on all fronts at the moment. The Iraqi Army has taken about one-third of Fallujah back (ISIS' last large city in the Anbar Sunni heartland), the offensive south to Raqqa has restarted, the Kurds are pushing West into Mosul (and the Iraqi 72nd Brigade is encircling from the South) and (amazingly) the Turks have even finally given permission for the Kurds to move West of the Euphrates towards Manbij cutting off ISIS' final border area possessions that connect them with the outside world (note that the Turks have only given this permission after the hopeless Turkish-supported Syrian opposition's positions to the West of Dabiq completely collapsed, and after ISIS has started rocketing southern Turkish cities). From the taking of Manbij it's only a short distance to the town of Dabiq, which looms so large in ISIS apocalyptic belief and propaganda.

As usual, I encourage you to stay updated through liveuamap (constantly updated battle-maps, linked below)

isis.liveuamap.com

[video="youtube;iSkdBnzkVQQ"]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iSkdBnzkVQQ[/video]

(edited 7 years ago)

Reply 1

Thutmose-III

Something else my fellow TSRians might find interesting. Manbij is a major population centre near the Turkish border on the strip of land ISIS controls. If you want to get a sense of the geography and the different factions, where they are and the areas they control, follow this link below and then click the "On the Map" button at the top. Then zoom out slightly and you will see

http://isis.liveuamap.com/en/2016/31-may-kurdishled-syrian-democratic-forces-sdf-captured-four

Anyway, as the Kurds close in on Manbij, the Coalition aircraft have been dropping fake ISIS leave permits all over the city. ISIS always tries to prevent civilians leaving when an offensive is closing in on one of their controlled cities because they want to increase civilian casualties. You are not allowed to leave without a permit. I thought this was quite a clever way to hopefully give some hope that civilians might get out, and to confuse the heck out of ISIS soldiers at a time when the Kurds are closing in

Reply 2

Asuna Yuuki

It's surprising how little damage it appears to do.

People often complain about airstrikes as if they're carpet-bombing cities to the ground ~ but this is how it works, precision missiles that achieve exactly what they intend.

It's not all mindless destruction :yep:

Reply 3

Thutmose-III

Original post by Asuna Yuuki

Very well said. I believe the munition used was the 250lb Small Diameter Bomb which has quite capabilities as a penetrator

The damage in this strike is extremely well-calibrated; they only want to take out the gear box below the pump, not to obliterate the whole pumping station which would just make the Syrian people poorer when they take back their country.

Such a strike indicates planning, forethought, expertise (of how such pumps work), political and economic consideration of future Syrian needs... as you say, they're not carpet-bombing cities. They are very carefully applying airpower to help free the Iraqis and Syrians from a force that has few parallels in evil since the Nazis

Reply 4

RF_PineMarten

Original post by Asuna Yuuki

Yeah, I've seen other videos where something like a pick up truck will be destroyed, but nearby buildings are undamaged (except maybe broken windows from debris).

And yet people still act as though we're carpet bombing the place with unguided bombs and killing huge numbers of civilians, which is not the case at all.