Some fun gaza math... Based on some of the Iron Dome posts above.
Each 155mm shell will take out 10,000 square yards or .003 square miles. Blast area of roughly 100 x 100 yards.
140 square miles (10 miles by 14... ) 25,640 yards. x 17,600 yards
Unless my math is off, it would take just 43,000 155mm artillery shells to turn Gaza into a rubble pile. One shell every 200 yards x 200 yards in a grid.
Could one of our artillery experts run up a fire mission plan? Rolling barrage from East to West... Because I think the solution is pretty simple. Wear out a few tubes... Spend a few days firing. Problem solved.
FYI, Ukraine is firing 7,000 to 8,000 shells a day across a wide front at dispersed targets. Each shell costs about $4500 (these are cheap HE rounds, not guided or bleed base or spendy shells. Just dumb shells.) By that math, 5 days of properly-planned shelling and Gaza is a parking lot.
Total cost for shells is about $200 million. That's not including tubes and ancillaries like transport, soldier salaries, 3M ear plugs and subsequent lawsuits... you get the ideal. $200 million is nothing. Noone gets invaded. The A-Rabs can't complain about an incursion. And if the shell pattern runs in a diagonal that drives everyone out the bottom into Egypt... well, if the gate don't open, it's gonna be stir fry. Whatever. Open the gate, Egypt.
Someone please check my math and my fire mission plan. I haven't have coffee yet. I know we have some artillery guys and some actuaries among us. Run the math right for me!
Sirhr
PS. If my effects planning is falling a bit short... you know with the shells being contained by buildings, rubble bouncing, etc. Feel free to double the fire concentration. $400 million is still a really cheap end to all this. Even $600 Million. Heck, I could see Elon Musk funding this just to get a good laugh! I mean, it's cheaper than Twitter and sends a much stronger message. See what I did there?