Posted on 06/30/2010 7:50:50 PM PDT by ErnstStavroBlofeld
The US Air Force could soon deploy a 226kg (500lb)-class guided bomb designed with a composite warhead to destroy targets while causing the least amount of collateral damage.
The first 50 Precision Lethality Mk 82 bombs could be delivered by January 2011, with up to 750 carbonfibre-wound warheads designated as BLU-129/B to follow.
The air force has issued a market survey seeking contractors that can deliver the composite warheads rapidly in response to an urgent request by Central Command, the US headquarters in the Middle East and parts of south Asia.
The Air Armament Center could award a contract as soon as August to build 125-175 warheads for a test programme, the survey says.
A "one-time production option" for 400-800 warheads could follow if the test programme is successful.
The air force also is buying a low-collateral damage version of the 130kg Boeing small diameter bomb called the full lethality munition.
Precision Lethality bombs would be nearly twice the size of the full lethality munition, but are still intended to minimise damage beyond a precise strike zone.
The new, composite BLU-129/B warheads would be installed in the Mk 82 bomb, which would be mated to a joint direct attack munition (JDAM) and laser JDAM guidance kits
(Excerpt) Read more at flightglobal.com ...
Actually if you recall the Tom Clancy novel and movie “Patriot Games”, the AF dropped a cellulose-cased bomb on a drug kingpin’s house, but the reason was strictly deniability...there would be no evidence of a US weapon left at the site. Or so they thought.
LOL! Now I feel old.
I think dropping pictures of all democratic female politicians would be a cheaper way to paralyze an enemy. Shock and Awe!
LOL!! That, sir (or madam), is brilliant!
Even sadder still, I don't think your joke will be far from the truth.
There will no-doubt be a section of the evaluation report on the composite bomb/bomblets that addresses environmental safety for the ordies storing and handling it. Can't have any outgassing of dangerous or carcinogenic volatiles from the composites.
Also they'll no-doubt want to know about the decomposition properties in the target area after it has exploded. How much of it will be consumed by the explosion, how much may burn in the resulting fires afterwards, and what environmental impact any remaining unburned or partially burned composite residue will have. Don't laugh, I'll bet the enviro-whackos will want to make sure we don't permanently pollute the target area. The hand-wringers will want to ensure we don't leave behind sharp shards of composite material that someone picking through the wreckage might cut themselves on. ;-/
Thank you for remembering the DSL!
I was wondering how long it would take for a FReeper to mention Clancy and that stealth bomb.
(ummm, wasn’t it “Clear and Present Danger”?)....
The logical inverse of a daisy cutter...sort of.
Apparently, these people are not as well informed as they should be on the ramifications of "carbonfibre" in bomb casings. Metal shrapnel is easy to find in a damaged but living body - even if the trauma surgeon can't see it, he can still image it with x-ray or other technology. Composites with carbon fibers (I'm in the States, so I won't use the Brit spelling) are almost impossible to find with most imaging technologies. That means that while the shrapnel is less penetrating, it is also much harder to remove from the injured. Doctors have to do a lot of exploratory surgery to find the little bits of carbon fiber, which look and even feel a whole lot like they belong in the human body.
Have we just paid for another weapon that will never be used because it's "inhumane"?
BTW, we already have something like this called the Neutron Bomb.Hey, if it was up to me I would have, long ago, used our neutron bombs on large swaths of this planet, so that those areas could be then repopulated with nice folk.
The Mk 82 is the warhead for the GBU-12 laser-guided bombs and for the GBU-38 JDAM
Yes you are right, it was Clear and Present Danger.
Thank you, neither Sir nor Madam but just a guy with a beer and a bunch of guns to clean :) I’m still waiting for Her Majesty to make me a Sir.
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