Best Defense

Thomas E. Ricks' daily take on national security.

Can you guess what this modified Wellington bomber was designed to do?

Okay, I will tell you.

dwi_wellington_front
dwi_wellington_front

 

 

Okay, I will tell you. This is an old Vickers Wellington bomber fitted during World War II with a two-ton ring meant to explode sea mines. Apparently the concept worked, but each pass cleared such a small area that it really wasn’t effective.

Photo credit: Royal Air Force/Wikicommons 

Thomas E. Ricks covered the U.S. military from 1991 to 2008 for the Wall Street Journal and then the Washington Post. He can be reached at ricksblogcomment@gmail.com. Twitter: @tomricks1

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