Posted on 10/08/2005 5:13:52 PM PDT by strategofr
One of the strangest, and most useful, bombs employed in Iraq has been the concrete filled JDAM. Why deliver a 500 pound bomb filled with concrete instead of explosives? You do that if you want to do some damage, but not a lot. Concrete JDAMs were first used in the 1990s to destroy anti-aircraft guns, radars and missiles that Saddam Hussein placed in residential areas.
He believed that the Americans would not attack these weapons, for fear of hurting nearby civilians. But it turned out that a laser, or satellite (JDAM) guided concrete smart bomb could take out the air-defense weapons without hurting nearby civilians. The concrete bombs come in various sizes (500, 1,000 and 2,000 pounds), but the new 500 pound JDAM has become a favorite when a concrete version is required.
Recently, for example, two small bridges near the Syrian border were seen being used by terrorists to bring in people and weapons. There was no need to completely destroy the bridges (which might take months, or longer, to replace), because the terrorists were slowly being chased from the area. But a concrete bomb on each bridge damaged the structures enough so that they could not be used, but not so much that they could not be repaired in a week or two.
Concrete bombs are still used against terrorist targets in residential areas, where the bomb can reach the terrorists before police or ground troops can. It’s all a case of a seemingly off-the-wall weapon idea being, not a joke, but actually quite useful.
That's a real plane. The Super Guppy
Watch for the UN to ban it as inhumane.Watch for John McCain to introduce a Senate Bill to ban it as inhumane.
I vote to fill it with Pig Poop . . .
We take either the Laser Guidance or GPS package and slap it on a heavy inert bomb body. Those inert bomb bodies would normally be dropped on training missions.
Normally the guidance kits are strapped onto live MK-82, 83, and 84 bodies except the penetrators which have special bomb bodies.
About 4,175,293 foot-pounds of it. That's like having a 10,000 pound weight dropped on your house from 417 feet, (in a vacuum of course).
If they're going to build an inert projectile -- which is what a JDAM without an explosive warhead is, basically a really huge, really smart bullet rather than a bomb -- I'm surprised they couldn't find something more dense than portland cement. Jacketed lead or iron, or even something exotic like DU (depleted uranium, not that other dense substance with the same initials). For that matter, something like a Sabot round strapped to the front of a JDAM would be precise enough for a pilot to ask, "which nostril?"
Shows them we can throw "rocks" better than they can too.
yes, but could it destroy the cee-ment pond owned by Jed Clampett?
Too damn funny....lol
I don't recall the use of any concrete, but otherwise you are correct. I used to know some of the guys who developed the thing for TI. They actually only did the guidance kit, but had to simulate the whole thing to check that the control gains from a standard bomb would work, or if they needed to tweak the gains some. The rest of the kit, except for that artillery barrel filled with explosives, was the then in production version of Paveway. I can't recall if they used the gains from the 1000 or 2000 pound version. It was developed in a just few months from contract award to first drop, which hit the desired target.
I don't think the unit production cost of either Paveway or JDAM is that high. They are relatively cheap devices.
Here's the numbers for JDAM, probably as of about 2001.
Acquisition unit cost $62,846
Average unit cost (40,000 units) $18,000 current estimate
The first includes amortized R&D, the latter is production cost.
Paveways are a little more expensive, but not much. The same source (globalsecurity.org) shows a unit production cost of $55,600.
So those rocks aren't so expensive after all. But it's still like throwing an intermediate sized car away every time you use one.
Why do I think that a bomb with 2 to 5 lbs of HE would accomplish the same task, and many, many more could be carried by a single aircraft.
Is it possible that the cement was chosen because the resulting mass and CG are comparable to those for which the guidance systems were designed?
I miss reading about naplam and the jumps it made our enemy take. I know Agent Orange has no use in that sand pile.
We use it to fix the places we inadvertently destroy with the concrete bombs.
Possible. Probable, even. If I could calculate that telemetry in my head, I'd be sitting in much more expensive digs then I am.
Similar sounding name, but wrong city.
I am in Tainan, Taiwan. South west coast of the island.
Oldest city of the island and former capital. Now its a very nice mid-sized town far from the dirt, congestion and pollution of Taipei in the north and KaoShiung in the south.
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