A battery of MRLS system can be quite powerful, and in a densely
packed populated urban environment such as Singapore, it can wreck
havoc and cause widespread panic.
The explosive effects of a single bomb with explosives of 3 kg
warhead (not 0.1gm per sq meter as suggested by tripwire) can be
quite devastating, if he has any understanding to the effects of
the explosive.
When HE ammunition explodes it causes a chemical blast effect,
heat, expanding air pressure, vacuum, and a subsequent imploding
air pressure.
When the chemical blast and heat do not affect the concrete
structures of our HDB flat, the multiplier effect (of expanding air
pressure, and the vacuum caused by the sudden dissipation of air
from the blast center point, and the sudden return of air back to
the vacuum point will cause an inward returning air pressure) can
cause harmful effects to our HDB flats.
Bearing in mind that the HDB flats are not entirely made of
concrete, which is only used for its columns beams and load bearing
walls only, with the remaining walls being built from hollow cement
bricks which WILL NOT be able to withstand the subsequent
pressures from an explosive effects.
In the US Embassy bombings in Beirut and subsequently in Nairobi
(?), a truck bomb that exploded outside each of the Embassy
building, brought down the entire frontal structures that faced the
full blast of the truck bombs.
When a multiple explosion form a salvo of MRLS rockets is to fall
into a neighborhood of several blocks of HDB flats, the enclosed
areas will be ideal in multiplying the pressures of the multiple
explosive effects of the salvo.
The block that has all the salvos falling around it, will suffer
the greatest damage.
The hollow cement brick wall can hardly hold back the full force of
a falling rocket bomb from penetrating its wall.
With a rocket bomb exploding inside the flat, and also the
remaining salvos falling outside the block, the devastation can
only be more assured.
Try reading the effects of explosive power at the following
site:
http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Explosive_material
