The Afghan Cave-War 

The U.S. is hoping a $25 million reward and continued bombing will detect the caves of Afghanistan where the members of al-Qeada network and bin Laden are reported to be hiding out. To do that, the American forces are using a combination of technological options such as signals intercept, satellite intelligence, thermal sensors and human intelligence. 

"Be it bin Laden or Omar or Taliban fighters, you can not move without leaving a trail- an electronic trail, a heat trail, a money trail or a reflective signature. They have to communicate with headquarters, by telephone or radio, and tell them where they are going- information you can track. You also get photographic evidence, mainly from space assets. Or you can watch infra-red sensors to see heat sources," said Don Sheppard, a military analyst. 

The following are some technological tools that have recently been used to detect the target caves. 

A.     The Global Hawk ….The Unmanned Spy Plane: The United States has deployed a new hi-tech unmanned spy plane in the skies over Afghanistan to help search for Osama bin Laden and his al-Qaeda organization in their network of specially built caves. The long-range Global Hawk had joined in the hunt, even though testing of the aircraft had not yet been completed and it had never been used in a real operation before. Built by U.S.-defense firm Northrop Grumman, the Global Hawk flies at 350 miles an hour and can cruise at up to 65,000 feet.

B.     Infra-Red sensor technology: Sensors in this technology are capable of detecting heat sources, magnetic fields and vibrations; and are being used in aircrafts and via troops on the ground. These sensors are capable of picking up the movements of large troop deployments or vehicles on the ground, as well as the use of electronic equipment and generators. As the freezing Afghan winter sets in, any warmth being generated on the ground will be easier for these sensors to pick up. 

Once the target caves are detected, the Pentagon is ready to attack with full force. The Pentagon is hurriedly developing powerful new earth-penetrating weapons even as American forces are striking dozens of suspected underground hide-outs of al Qaeda and the Taliban with specialized tunnel-blasting bombs and missiles. However, the new weapons go far beyond the now familiar "bunker buster" and the GBU-28 laser-guided bomb. Many new bombs, missile warheads and other armaments have already been built and tested. Furthermore, some old weapons, created for use in Iraq and Korea are being upgraded. They include the following: 

1. Deep Digger System: This rapid-fire cannon is said to eat into rock or reinforced concrete with a series of blasts, using secondary explosions to remove the resulting rubble quickly.
2. AGM-86D: A refurbished deep-penetrating version of the Air Force's formerly nuclear-tipped aircraft-launched cruise missile. The contractor, Boeing, said a missile launched from a B-52 bomber over the White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico had successfully struck "a hardened, buried target complex" and detonated inside. The Air Force has received part of an order of 50 of the missiles, on which nuclear warheads had been replaced with a slender, heavy, conventional warhead that can drive deep into the earth.
3. Hard-Nosed Bomb: This bomb is designed to penetrate and incinerate buried caches of chemical or biological weapons without releasing contamination into the air. To save money and speed up development, the Pentagon is focusing on upgrading existing bomb and missile designs with heavier, slimmer casings and computer-controlled fuses that allow them to punch deeper into the ground and precisely control the point at which they explode.
4. Advanced Unitary Penetration: This weapon is at the heart of a new version of the laser-guided GBU-24 bomb and has more than twice the penetrating power of the previous hard-target warhead for that bomb. It has a long, slim case made of a heavy, hard alloy of nickel, cobalt and steel, sheathed in a conventional aluminum fuselage that strips away as it collides with a target. The combination of heavy weight and a small diameter concentrates enormous force that drives it through the earth in the same way a nail punches through wood when struck by a heavy hammer. The warhead had its first battlefield use in Kosovo in 1999. A particularly potent weapon, being developed under a program managed by the United States forces in Korea, it was used to attack North Korea's growing tunnel and silo complexes using high heat and deadly pressure. One proposed version would ride on a supersonic cruise missile. Fuel-air explosives of this sort have been widely used above the surface by the United States in the gulf war and by Russia in Chechnya. According to military documents, the aboveground blasts produce up to twice the pressure of conventional high explosive charges and searing temperatures above 5,000 degrees - far hotter than the fires that toppled the World Trade Center towers.
5. Computer-controlled fuse: To guarantee an effective attack, the explosion - or multiple explosions in the case of several new weapons - must be precisely timed to occur at just the right moment or depth. That is the job of the "hard target smart fuse," the newest computer- controlled fuse, which can, in the split-second as it strikes a target, discriminate between rock, concrete and soil and can also count, ticking off each ceiling or wall it strikes and only triggering the blast at the desired underground level.

Other weapons designed for destroying deep targets are to be test fired at tunnel systems being built at the old Nevada Test Site, once used for studying nuclear weapon blasts underground. However, as military analyst David Grangesays, "The attack of al-Qeada's caves is not a 100-yard dash, but a marathon." Even with new weapons, attacking caves is no easy matter and will present many challenges. 

Now, U.S. warplanes unload laser-guided Maverick missiles and 5,000 Ib. Bunker busters to collapse limestone redoubts and bury anyone taking cover inside. Members of the U.S. Army's clandestine force, equipped with night vision goggles and stun grenades hope that they can get warplanes to do the dirty, risky work. Bands of local Afghan fighters - whether driven by the desire to rid their country of bin Laden or win the 25$ million bounty the U.S. had placed on his head - join U.S. special operations forces in the pursuit. Their orders are to shoot to kill. 

However, American military planners remain leery of sending ground troops into the caves to root out the enemy in person. They would prefer to dispatch their far more experienced Afghan proxies to the enemy lairs if entry becomes necessary. Caves are strewn with buried mines and trip-wire grenades set to kill intrudes. "Once you get in the holes, it's a very psychological disadvantage to the individual who is doing the crawling. You are on their territory and you cannot see. If you are using a light - a flashlight, for instance-you can only see small distance. It is very dangerous," retired Army Sergeant Major Andy Neil said. 

However, at the same time, the U.S. military wants to gather as much information as possible on the results of the deep cave bombings for use in future missions. A classified status report on buried threats and the Pentagon delivered the need for new weapons to the Senate Armed Services Committee in the beginning of December 2001. The push to improve ground-penetrating weapons began after the Persian Gulf War of 1991 and revealed Iraq's subterranean activities. The new weapons initiative accelerated later in the 1990's as Libya, Iran, North Korea, terrorist camps in Afghanistan and other adversaries shifted activities underground to avoid attack and detection by satellites and aircraft. 

A major goal, according to Pentagon documents, is to assemble by 2004 a small arsenal of weapons that can - with potent precision blasts - destroy subterranean complexes in North Korea that may harbor nuclear weapons or the missiles that carry them. Another target is Iraq's many suspected underground installations, in which President Saddam Hussein is alleged to be hiding deadly caches of microbes, nuclear materials and chemicals.

Sources: 

BBC. "Spy Plane Hunting Bin Laden." BBC. November 22, 2001 

CNN. "$25 Million Bounty For Bin Laden." www.cnn.com/2001/US/11/20/gen.war.against.terror/index.html  

Cove, Andrew. "Hunt Closing in on Bin Laden." The Times. December 2, 2001. 

Revkn, Andrew. "US Making Weapons to Blast Underground Hide-Out." The New York Times. December 3, 2001.