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Earlier this summer, the Swedish Air Force dropped a laser-guided bomb on a forest fire to help suppress the flames. Now there’s a proposal for the United States to do the same, using the might of the U.S. Air Force to fight America’s raging forest fires via bombs and sonic booms. Bombers that have attacked targets in Syria, Afghanistan, and Iraq could instead strike targets in the continental United States—this time saving lives and property.

https://www.popularmechanics.com/milita ... est-fires/

At least it's based on solid science, unlike theories of global warming.

BRING BACK THE B-58!!!

There were some studies in the UK in the early 70's where they were building nuclear bombs without the radioactive element to extinguish fires using a shock-wave, essentially generating a massive sonic boom. The initial tests suggested that wildfires over enormous areas could be extinguished but I'm not sure why they were discontinued.

Useless additional information: The plans for this experiment are held in the archive of drafts to which I am a trustee. I have checked and I will be free to share them with you in February 2023...

I don't see the USFS going for this, as they weren't too keen on heavy jet slurry bombers.

I read this and just for kicks watched TinHatRanch's take on YouTube again about what happens in nuclear explosions - he said a 20 megaton explosion would result in over 700 mph winds not far from ground zero.



Mention is at 1:33. At 2:07, another site further away gets only 200 mph winds. Probably don't need one that big.



As far as the UK, just a guess, but maybe while building nukes without the radioactive element they hadn't yet accounted for possible firestorms.

Without resorting to nukes because of obvious downsides, the idea to bomb forest fires isn't that dumb (unlike "shooting at hurricanes from the coast of Virginia") ; after all, explosions are what's used to extinguish oil well fires, and it's actually an overscaled version of blowing on a candle.

In other words, why the hell not? Just make sure that the firefighters don't go full Vietnam and call an airstrike on their position!