Bombing Them Back to Hell
Against the undead there is often the idea that distance mean safety. So, taking this stratagem to the next level why can’t we just use our great technology and advancements in the art of air power and bring collective hell down on the heads of the undead where they can’t even touch us?
You no doubt have seen the videos of smart bombs disengaging from the bottom of a jet fighters or falling from the bomb bays of bombers and falling through the air, making minuet adjustments so that the target, often times a small window is hit dead center. With current advancement in thermo baric devices and a plethora of others including atomic weapons it is understandable that these weapons that are thought to be able to win wars would be of great advantage against the undead.
Over the past century air power has become one of the deciding factoring in conventional war. He who controls the skies controls the war. This is in conventional warfare, not guerrilla, and certainly not against the undead. The undead that mankind will face are not the herds of the movies, are not semi-moronic ones that still have some idea how everyday item may. They cannot work door knobs, they cannot drive cars, and they know not enough to even turn on the lights. The point is, that the undead will likely stay where they rise, unless that is in the streets or fields. Unless you want to flatten everything in the country, and I do mean everything, you will not be able to win the war by air power alone. Also, even if you do try to use air power to completely eliminate the undead, there will be those who flee to the underground, those that are alive and either infected or whom are overrun by the infected in there shelter. Be that the sewers, bomb shelters, of just the subways, places that bombs cannot reach and when the area is repopulated the threat from these areas will hang over the heads of those there until every zombie are dead.
“You can keep your atom bombs, your tanks and your airplanes; you”ll still have to have some little guy with a rifle and bayonet who winkles the other bastard out of his foxhole and gets him to sign the peace treaty.”
General George S. Patton
Comments (44)
Caleb Hader on 28 Oct 2009 at 12:51 pm #
Good thought, I completely agree. Even if you have the bombs, the gov’t will never use them to level entire cities for the sake of saving money, in a similar way that we are unwilling in america to go ove to the metric side because the money to do so would wrangle a senator off his 2 week long cruise to the bahamas. Also, there would be the whole “There could be survivors” thing to deal with. I personally believe the best way to exterminate zombies through that kind of area is to comb through it in fireteams who shoot zombies as they see them, then setting a part of a city as a headquarters with a guarded perimeter until the rest of the city has been proven to be zombie free. Not a quick process.
Angryvikingman on 28 Oct 2009 at 1:05 pm #
Starting on the outskirts of a major city, set up an inpregnable “safe” area, then expand it until the whole city is inside the safe area. Not a lot of american cities have a subway system, so the few that do can be left alone. The population will be so low that it wont be necessary to reclaim every major city. New york especially. There are dock facilities in other places that would be easier to re-take. Then, you can offer a bounty for zombie heads and that will slowly take care of the larger urban areas. If the bounty was $50 a head, I could easily take 10 a day and make a fabulous life for myself and my family. Hell, they could even have a reality show about it. “Zombie Survivor” or “Zombie Hunter” LOL!
Sharpshooter on 28 Oct 2009 at 1:45 pm #
this is why i like my bunker ideas. always an amazing thing to have even it it’s not just for zombies! nuclear war, you could use it as a panic room… possibilities only limited by your imagination. i would honestly like to have one the size of a hangar underground. no seperate rooms just one huge one. i like Viking’s idea of doing bounties. could be a very good way to keep up moral too.
Sevandor on 28 Oct 2009 at 2:57 pm #
While I agree, Air could still be used to lessen the population of Zs or to help quarintine them. You need ground troops, but air san still provide support
3ID on 28 Oct 2009 at 3:51 pm #
you also need pilots because all of you on here can not fly planes and if you can it would be one of those small civilan planes not a jet fighter or B-52 so with that said you will probly combine Caleb and Angryvikingmans Idea you would have fire teams and there would be some kind of reward if there was any thing left of or beloved GOV. if not then your reward is you killed some thing that was going to eat you and your entire family so what ever the case air probly wont play that big of a part maby accept for some Helos but then again you need good pilots
Andy on 28 Oct 2009 at 5:06 pm #
Yeah- I can’t really see the use of jets and bombers as far as containment goes…it would be kind of like lighting your house on fire to kill the termites. Maybe if a densely populated area was considered quarantined, but totally lost as far as survivors, you could nuke it, but that’s assuming a lot. When it comes to zombies, I don’t think the word “quarantine” has any meaning anymore.
Ryan Elliott on 28 Oct 2009 at 5:44 pm #
I can see it now DOG the zombie hunter. That actually made me lol.
KillerB on 28 Oct 2009 at 7:44 pm #
How about directed microwave beams of energy. I think I saw someting like this on Modern Weapons. Cooking them would be highly effective and the machine had a very reasonable range. In the show it was used as a nonlethal device but all you would have to do is add a little more power and you could litterly cook them in their tracks. Kill the brain, Kill the Zombie……..Right!!! You could fly something like this over the city and get the ones that are out in the open and at least thin the “crowd” a little before you sent shooters in to clear the area. No explosions, no fire, just melted zombies. Hell I do not know if what I saw on TV is anything more than just a prototype. Just throwing that out there. Low flying slow airplanes like a Cesna 172 could also be used as a semistable shooting platform. Fly just above stall speed and shoot away. I have seen shows where they use this technique to shoot animals for research. It would work if you had a good shooter and a piolit combination. There would be a learning curve but after awhile I am sure that a person could get used to shooting a slow moving target from a 60mph airplane. ( I do not know the stall speed but it is probably around there) Yes there are no bombs here either and collateral damage could be kept to almost nothing. If this was used in conjuction with a squad of shooters on the ground it could be highly effective.
KillerB on 28 Oct 2009 at 7:46 pm #
How about directed microwave beams. I think I saw someting like this on Modern Weapons. Cooking them would be highly effective and the machine had a very reasonable range. In the show it was used as a nonlethal device for crowd control but all you would have to do is add a little more power and you could litterly cook them in their tracks. Kill the brain, Kill the Zombie……..Right!!! You could fly something like this over the city and get the ones that are out in the open and at least thin the “crowd” a little before you sent shooters in to clear the area. No explosions, no fire, just melted zombies. Hell I do not know if what I saw on TV is anything more than just a prototype. Just throwing that out there. Low flying slow airplanes like a Cesna 172 could also be used as a semistable shooting platform. Fly just above stall speed and shoot away. I have seen shows where they use this technique to shoot animals for research. It would work if you had a good shooter and a piolit combination. There would be a learning curve but after awhile I am sure that a person could get used to shooting a slow moving target from a 60mph airplane. ( I do not know the stall speed but it is probably around there) Yes there are no bombs here either and collateral damage could be kept to almost nothing. If this was used in conjuction with a squad of shooters on the ground it could be highly effective. PS I AM SORRY FOR THE MISSPELLED WORDS
Sharpshooter on 28 Oct 2009 at 7:51 pm #
ehhh iunno call me a old fashioned guy but i don’t trust a weapon like microwave beams… seems too high tech and undertested. if it was used like regularly in the field and is a widely known weapon that was easy to repair i might be tempted…. seems like if it broke down something bad could happen
Hellspawn on 28 Oct 2009 at 8:07 pm #
Microwave beams area already in use for many communications transmissions, and yeah, they will cook a person if strong enough. seems like a good idea to me.
KillerB on 28 Oct 2009 at 8:07 pm #
Go with post #9 of mine. Post #8 is identical minus a few small details…….i guess i hit the send button to soon……..sorry for the double posting
KillerB on 28 Oct 2009 at 8:12 pm #
@ sharpshooter
yeah i agree with the reliablity issue. I would never want to put men on the ground with an experimental weapon with out the required backup. i am positive that technology as advanced as this is probably very sensitive and not up to rugged field use BUT if it works then there is nothing that would stop a more reliable weapon from being developed and fielded. Hell our own M-16 started off with a horrible reputation of being unreliable and it has been refined many many many times and is now one of the world best assault rifles.
3-15 INF on 28 Oct 2009 at 8:26 pm #
I just always assumed that the military and police would break down when faced with a large infestation as an organization. I could maybe see the military use aircraft to bomb the bridges to slow down and quarantine an are, like in 28 days. Overall, i agree with the consesus that it wouldn’t be worth much. i could see mortars being used tho. Maybe with WP to burn them up at distance?
Sharpshooter on 28 Oct 2009 at 8:36 pm #
agreed KillerB but in the midst of the zombie apocolypse is NOT the time to test it and refine it.
Caleb Hader on 28 Oct 2009 at 10:01 pm #
I’m gonna go with Sharpshooter on the microwave weapon thing. I saw the weapon you are talking about and turns out that it only cooks the outermost layer of skin, causing it to feel like you are on fire, while it’s really just the topmost layer of skin with your nerves that is causing all the pain. Not to say one could not modify the system, but I don’t know if 1) that would be easy, even for someone who is in that particular field of fabrication, or 2) I personally believe that since the weapon was designed for less than lethal riot control, that it would maybe not be the best system to try to modify when the world fell. Not saying that you can’t do this, because again, I am no expert on the matter, but I think I would prefer a weapon system like a good ar15, sr15 (gotta love that gas piston) or even a pistol or hunting rifle that can and has been proven, and all I have to do is carry ammo with me. Or even, melee weapons, always there. I do think that microwaves can be deadly, of course, but the more complicated the device, the more that can go wrong. I prefer nice easy to use, caveman-simple weapons.
P.S. I really dig angry’s bounty idea.
P.S.S. where can I buy riot gear? I was playing army of two the other day and thought to myself, “Self, The armor they wear would be amazing for an apocalypse.” Metal plates on torso, upper leg and arms, with a metal mask, that followed up by either kevlar or hard plastic plates would do great against bites, while the metal and kevlar would do well for stopping not so friendly raiders and scavengers. just my thought. Oh, and yes I do realize this would be nuckin futz heavy. but it would work. but ya, if anyone knows where to find THAT, tell me, I’ll put it on my Christmas list. :)
McLuvin on 28 Oct 2009 at 10:12 pm #
Air superiority would only matter if the military was still active and functional.
In my opinion airstrikes with thermobaric or nuclear weapons would be very effective with small outbreaks.
If the problem were localized as in a level 2 scenario you could take out a small town that had been overrun and save a bunch of time and trouble with clearing it door to door. Even in a level 3 size outbreak
if major cities were overrun you could fly over and announce the bombing so everyone
still alive could try to escape. The zombies wouldn’t get the message and would be cooked in one big group.
Sure many living people would be blown away with the zombies. Maybe they were trapped or just could not make it out of the blast zone in time, but for the greater good sacrifices must be made. Set up a perimeter and close it off after the blast.
Now, if the outbreak were a level 4 global issue then the military would most likely not exist.
Even if we could bomb them with the biggest nukes we have they would be too spread out and mixed with humans to even make a difference.
Sharpshooter on 29 Oct 2009 at 12:24 pm #
yeah i dont trust the air force to not nuke my area which is why i’m looking heavily into building a fall out shelter. i’m looking at building one that would look a lot like the one from “Blast From The Past” as a good general referance. fish tanks, growing room, probably an entertainment room as well. i’m highly debating turning it into an actual house (just so i dont freak out who i would have for neighbors.) and using it as such. but not really letting people know it’s actually a nuclear bunker.
Ronin666 on 29 Oct 2009 at 3:36 pm #
In the early days of an infection aircraft would be useless as there would still be a lot of healthy people in an area so bombing would be out of the question, later in the infection you will be hard pressed to find pilots, besides those heavily populated areas will also be the areas with the most food supplies so you don’t want be destroying that.
jay on 30 Oct 2009 at 1:07 pm #
the government wouldnt drop any bombs their far to tight they would try and cover up a zombie outbreak.. and say it was somthing else just to save a little money
Caleb Hader on 30 Oct 2009 at 10:33 pm #
I agree with you jay, If we’re not willing to change over to metric, then they sure won’t destroy an entire city for the sake of something which at that point I’m guessing would be the starting-ish point of a larger outbreak. My guess is they would wait for it to be larger and then report to the people, not to sound conspiratorial but, “It was thought to be an unconfirmed prank”, to which they would probably attribute to “my generation”, but after it became a large problem in that city, would send armed forces (not an army, but something like the local swat or spec opps) to eradicate they local pandemic. The reason for the wait, I don’t think would be because of being unconfirmed, but more likely to gain political popularity with the people. Think about it, (An opening to a conspiracy theory if ever there was one :) ) “New outbreak in major city, Decisive action taken by the obama administration”. I know it sounds like a conspiracy, but I still wouldn’t put it past them, o’ course that could just be my upbringing to not buy into politician bull until I get the facts myself.
Sharpshooter on 31 Oct 2009 at 12:22 am #
Caleb you are crossing a dangerous line… i honestly do not care whatcha say about political views but a lot of people do. could start a whole flaming arguement over something so stupid as an IDEA. just a hint though. i just dont wanna have to shift through all the political idealist bullshit trying to find a decent post to read you know?
Caleb Hader on 31 Oct 2009 at 5:35 pm #
Ya, sorry about that, wasn’t really thinking, I get what ya mean though. I’ll remember that next time.
Angryvikingman on 31 Oct 2009 at 10:11 pm #
Happy Halloween!!!
LOL, I carried my MZPK, AR-15, and Mossberg 500 IN the mall today while taking my son trick or treating. That was fun. Mall security just smiled every time I went by. It was kinda funny when I was in Gamestop preordering my copy of Call of Duty:Modern Marfare 2 in my full gear, including face paint. All the employess were huddled behind the counter. Several people actually realized that I was carrying REAL guns in public. They didnt freak out at all. Before anyone freaks and reads me the riot act, I zip tied my tanto and kukri so I couldnt take it outa the sheath, took the bolt carrier out of my AR-15, and zip tied the shell feed on my shotgun. As per state law, I rendered them inoperable for display purposes so I could carry them in public and NOT go to jail.
Sharpshooter on 01 Nov 2009 at 5:56 pm #
hahah slick dude!!! i had my trusty shovel, gallons of fake blood, and peices of my hazmat suit mixed together with BDU’s and regular clothes. looked hardcore!
Caleb Hader on 01 Nov 2009 at 7:59 pm #
I was thinking about dressing up, but didn’t get a chance. My mind has been on my new sword all month, it’s still not here after 5 weeks of waiting, but I did get news that it would ship by this week so that’s good. As soon as I realized it was almost Halloween, I was thinking about dressing as a homeless guy, sacks tied over my boots, trash bag poncho, the whole thing, and then I was gonna wear a sign that said: will trick for treats. Also, I just started doing p90x, oh my gosh this is a sick workout program, it will work. Almost threw up doing 20 mins of one workout session. just saying, it’s good for getting in that zombie killin’ suit by swim season.
Ronin666 on 02 Nov 2009 at 3:17 am #
LOL@ Angry. When I was a kid (14/15) we used to walk home from Army Cadets with a 303 Enfeild over our shoulder and no one blinked. Try that these days! Hell we can’t even wear empty holsters in the car park at the range.
Sharpshooter on 03 Nov 2009 at 11:36 am #
i should’ve done something like that with my 30.06 on halloween…. ah well maybe next year! oh on a side note my brother left for boot camp today (marine corps!)! wish him luck people!
Angryvikingman on 03 Nov 2009 at 12:55 pm #
He go to Camp Pendelton? I’m sure itll be better than Parris Island. Seems like the “Hollywood” marines dont have it as hard.
Adam on 03 Nov 2009 at 4:26 pm #
I really don’t want to be “that guy”, but could you please, please proof-read your articles before you submit them? I get that you’re probably busy and don’t have much time, but it only takes a minute, and it’s starting to get pretty bad.
As for the bombs, I don’t see why it couldn’t work in selected targets. The larger cities, for example. You won’t need the space for living in, and after the apocalypse, there will likely be some radical architectural changes anyway. I say bomb the entire city to the ground then dig through the rubble. I’d rather shift a pile of rubble to find a half-buried ghoul than go into the bathroom of a small, 8th floor apartment and be nose-to-nose with zack.
Kain - ZAC Weapon Consultant on 03 Nov 2009 at 7:25 pm #
Adam, no offense or anything, but this is the internet. The posts that are on ZAC are like emails, which is true since any comment you post on an article I’ve written gets sent to my email account, which by the way you bastards have sent me like 2500 frigging emails in the past couple years through that. Anyway, an email is for all intensive purposes comparable to a memo, which is a short note that is intended to get a point across. It does not need to be grammatically correct, or even spelled correctly, as long as it gets it’s point across, that is it, nothing more. And since you’re going to have errors regardless, what does it really matter. I’ve got a story I’ve been working on for quite a while now, I’ll back that up by saying it’s something like 95 thousand words, and even parts that I have reread and revised three, four, ten times, I still find errors so I would get my knickers in a twist. That, and anyone not brain dead would have understood what Angryvikingman was asking.
And speaking of Angryvikingman’s comment, the marines are damn good, but I come from a Navy house, though my Uncle Charlie was a marine in Nam, enlisted. Sharpshooter, your brother is in good company.
As for the article, I like the idea to use mortars. Especially since 3ID knows how to use them, that always comes in handy. And Willie Pete would be an interesting means of combating the dead, the only issue is the smoke might obscure the undead and make shooting them at distance harder. But, if you set right, and have the wind to your back, which is not as easy as it sounds, it would work. Though, me, I’d go with HE and call it a day. But that’s against zombies. Against humans, yeah, bring on the Willie Pete.
“They won’t get me they won’t get me thought they never cease to try
they won’t get me they won’t get me I would rather fight and die
they won’t get me they won’t get me well my friend will they get you?
when they get you when they get you tell me what are you gonna do?”
Dropkick Murphys – The Gauntlet
Sharpshooter on 04 Nov 2009 at 12:58 am #
nope he specifically requested Parris Island because he wanted the full experiance of it or something like that.
Adam on 04 Nov 2009 at 8:36 am #
I didn’t mean to say you need perfect spelling and grammar, but some parts of the article read as if you were distracted halfway through the sentence and came back and forgot to finish it.
for example, “(they) are not semi-moronic ones that still have some idea how everyday item may.” just seems sort of incomplete.
I’m just asking for a once over to make sure it all makes sense, just so the point is conveyed clearly.
McLuvin on 04 Nov 2009 at 10:04 am #
I agree with Adam. It’s not a doctoral thesis but it should be coherent.
3-15 INF on 06 Nov 2009 at 10:27 am #
Anyone else’s wife/girlfriend make fun of you for spending too much time on this site?haha mine does
Angryvikingman on 06 Nov 2009 at 12:42 pm #
My wife doesnt, but she does roll her eyes a whole lot.
jay on 07 Nov 2009 at 4:02 am #
lol same here mine does
Semper Cogitant on 09 Nov 2009 at 6:42 pm #
How about using noise and scent to lure mass number of Zs into open areas. We read about huge numbers of them following the remnants of civilization and about major battles against masses of zombies.
In those cases, where you can get several thousand together in a survivor free area (or a hopefully survivor free area), an FAE (like a daisy cutter or a MOAB) bomb would be just the thing.
Otherwise bombs probably cause more problems than they solve in most scenarios.
Senor Krinkle on 21 Nov 2009 at 12:57 am #
when it starts, bombs are a good way to evicerate som zed-heads, but after it dies down a bit, recon will be key, if we can group them together into a massive horde, im certain every pilot and his grandma want to have a go at that with some explosive ordience, artillery works too, planes need fuel and can crash (which really really sucks when thats you), but cannot go far, a steady stream of mortar fire from a fortified location could (theoretically) terminate all the corpse-marchers in the area.
Now what i want to see is A-10 Warthog fly by, OH MAN! that would be a site i would love too see, it would be like christmas or whatever, i mean, that would be the gift that keeps on giving!
But grouping them all together and just letting rip all the left-over “bombs”(i use quotes because any thing that goes boom and can be dropped works) our military has would easily take care of the threat, and as for subways and underground areas, BUNKER BUSTERS! or we could just fire-bomb the city, i mean… either way you have to clean the place up, why not make it seem like a really bad fire and not a zombie epidemic?
3-15 INF on 13 Dec 2009 at 8:00 pm #
If you have the resources to do so, I would definitely build bombs. Homemade IED’s in the shape of claymore’s or smaller set guns would be prudent. It’s the only way to watch you six all the time at your base of operations. I would suggest at least building several set guns you can set up wherever you rest for the night.
The build is pretty simple and doesn’t take someone good at mechanics or machinery to make it-
1. Use small plumbing piping that is threaded, put an end cap on a six inch piece, drill a hole halfway down on the side. Place a strong spring and a wooden plug pierced through the center with a nail as a crude bolt and firing pin- compress and hold with a cotter pin
2. Screw a joint connector sleeve to the end and affix a second pipe- place a 12-gauge shotgun shell wrapped in duct tape to the proper diameter in the second pipe so that the firing pin will strike it when the cotter pin is released.
3. Attach a hose clamp to the set gun and screw it into the nearest doorjamb or wall toward the area you want covered. If a zed or bad guy walks into the area and trips the trip wire attached to the cotter pin on the gun, he gets some buckshot in the dome. I have used these to great success to defend entrances to hides.
ANOTHER great claymore design is to drill .22 sized holes ( i suggest about 500 into a plywood sheet of sufficient size) Cut a second board the same size and hammer some nails so they go through the same mentioned holes. Hammer more nails into the sides of both boards and wrap rubber bands around them so they want to be together. Design a trip wired firing device to allow both boards to fly together at high speed (use your imagination) and place .22 shells in the holes. Place the device down a likely avenue of approach. When set off, 500 .22 bullets fly at the target. Not a bad IED for antipersonnel. Just some ideas.
Angryvikingman on 14 Dec 2009 at 1:47 am #
Another good way is make a pressure switch and hide it under a door mat.
2 peices of cardboard, some foam from a camping pad, 2 lengths of wire, 2 pieces of aluminum foil.
————————- <–cardboard
——— <–foil
=== === <–foam
——— <–foil
————————- <–cardboard
connect your wires with some super glue to the aluminum foil, then run them to your explosives. A 9 volt battery, and some model rocket ignitors will set off just about any black powder explosive you can think of.
When someone/thing steps on the switch, it completes the circuit, and "BOOM!!!"
Found that in a book for children if you can believe that shit! Its called "The Dangerous Book for Boys". Its supposed to be used to activate a warning light if someone is coming…
Angryvikingman on 14 Dec 2009 at 1:50 am #
Wow, that didnt keep the proper formatting at all. just use 4 small squares of camping pad on each corner so it won’t take much to set off the alarm/explosive/ect….
3-15 INF on 14 Dec 2009 at 9:27 am #
Yeah, I’ve seen a varied amount of designs for crush bulb and pressure switches. One other design I’ve seen is to sandwich rubber rings wrapped in wire between two strips of wood. Yeah electrical firing the way you described is the ticket, with rocket motors and a lantern battery, you can set off a whole daisy chain of bombs. Connect your smaller bombs to propane tanks and you have great detonators for really BIG ones. Bombs can definitely be a force multiplier that can be used to defend choke points.
World War Ted on 24 Nov 2010 at 11:06 pm #
Rig up a car alarm attached to a battery and air-drop it into a public area of the city, a square or a large park or such. do it a couple of dozen times across a city. Let it run for a week or however long the battery lasts. Drop another one in a pre-determined position a kilometre or so away to draw the gathered crowds from a couple of the first alarms. Concentrate them in an area, preferably surrounded by earthenwalls or in a natural depression or such. Blow the hell out them with a fuel-air bomb and let them burn until destroyed. Send in ground teams to sweep buildings looking for those who couldn’t get out of the buildings to follow the alarms.
Still be like Stalingrad though. Vietnam would have nothing on the PTSD that the sweep teams would suffer.