Have you seen the speed of some of those missiles hitting Tel Aviv? Amazing. It is so easy to think that modern war is about bombs, drones, and missiles hitting valuable targets on the surface of the earth.
But a big part of war is putting valuable targets underground -- 100 feet, or is it 200? I have trouble visualizing that. I always thought they used tunneling equipment, similar to building underground coal mines. After getting down 200 feet, they would have to create a big "cave" to hold a large building. Building that seems so slow and expensive since you need to remove all the loose stuff via tunnels, and then bring in the construction materials through those tunnels.
I don't think they dig out a giant open-pit, and then build structures at the bottom of the hole in the usual way, and finally fill in the hole with "loose fill."
It seems like loose fill would be less protective than a similar depth of solid rock, but solidity itself is not the issue. What counts is the ability to dissipate the energy of the explosions.
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| from istockphoto.com |
Putting your economy underground is expensive, but it could be argued that the technology for doing so is the real arena of military competition. But all the glamor and publicity goes to AI and hypersonic missiles!
A secondary technology is ventilation and air conditioning equipment to dissipate the heat generated by these expensive underground facilities. If you put fans or air conditioning condensers on the surface of the earth, why couldn't drones just destroy them, and indirectly put the underground facilities out of commission?
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theboringcompany.com Lots to look at.