US Army combines bunker-buster warhead with drone delivery

New Atlas ^ | May 04, 2026 | David Szondy

[Red Badger]

BRAKER hitting its target - US Army

One of the biggest hitters in the conventional arsenal merged with drone technology, as the US Army tested a bunker-buster warhead combined with an expendable Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) for field testing at Redstone Arsenal in Alabama.

Bunker busters are a classic example of using brute force to overcome a seemingly impossible obstacle. There is something audacious about responding to the challenge of an impregnable fortress with what amounts to the arms equivalent of “hold my beer.”

The idea is to deal with a heavily armored or deeply buried target by dropping a bomb that is hard enough and heavy enough to plunge through yards of earth and stone to deliver a staggering blast comparable to a seismic event. The concept dates back to the trebuchet of medieval times and entered the popular imagination during the 1991 Gulf War, when Coalition forces neutralized Iraqi underground installations using improvised bombs that consisted of surplus 8-in howitzer gun barrels packed with high explosives and dropped from high altitude.

Since then, there have been many iterations of the concept, with the Bunker Rupture and Kinetic Explosive Round (BRAKER) warhead the latest example. It also takes advantage of the rapid advances in drone technology seen in recent years and reflects a growing emphasis on accelerated development, with the BRAKER prototype going from concept to live-fire testing in just 14 days.

---

TOPICS: Military/Veterans; Science
KEYWORDS:

[Nateman]

Those bombs weigh a lot . That is why it took the flying Doritos to make its special delivery on June 22, 2025 in Iran. When you see the sky is missing pixels you know you are in trouble.

[DIRTYSECRET]

All it means is we’ll have to remain the strongest and most advanced military in this world. There are too many crazies out there in this world who will look for a way or reason to do us harm. All you have to do is look at the left.

[Nateman]

Nuclear weapons changed the whole game. Now you just can’t invade a similar nation with your army and crush them like we did with Germany. You become like mafia untouchables. I have to give the Islamic colonizers a shout out on their new strategy. With rubber dinghies they are conquering England like the Spanish Armada never could .