US tests new bomb that will change ‘the rules of the game’

www.almasdarnews.com ^ | 2020-06-22 | By News Desk

[Red Badger]

BEIRUT, LEBANON (1:45 P.M.) – The United States tested the new smart bomb, GBU-53 StormBreaker, using one of their modern warplanes.

According to reports, the U.S. Navy’s FA-18E/F Super Hornet fighter and attack aircraft launched the GBU-53 StormBreaker all-weather bomb on a designated target.

The new bomb can be used in all weather conditions, including poor visibility, Janes Defense reported last week.

An RMD spokesperson told Janes that the U.S. Air Force determines the number of tests needed to validate the bomb, but did not specify when it would be available.

“The USAF (US Air Force) program office, in co-ordination with the USN, determine the appropriate number of tests to validate different parameters. These will be a combination of development and operational test shots of which several will be live firings.”

According to the U.S. Department of Defense, the missile will change “the rules of the game.”

When aiming at a target, the bomb uses a semi-active laser and GPS. The StormBreaker has a range of more than 45 miles (72 km).

The small dimensions indicate that many of these bombs will be placed on a single American fighter, including their F-15E jets, which can carry up to 28 of these missiles.

[Diogenesis]

possible benefit of the explosive penumbra?

[Robert DeLong]

I know a place, called Seattle, that would make for a great live test. 8>)

[nagant]

“Perhaps the reason why Germany and Japan haven’t had a major war in 75 years was due to the “imprecision” of our war making efforts.”

The allies were only capable of bringing Germany to its knees in WWII because we purposely bombed the living hell out of German population centers. I suspect it was hard to find a German to sign the surrender document.

[null and void]

Au contraire!

I want us to play it on them!

[SunkenCiv]

Sad that so many terrorists will be killed at weddings and in baby food factories by this weapon. /jk

[null and void]

We have the Nobel prize today because Alfred Nobel invented dynamite to make war to horrible to contemplate.

That worked out so poorly that when his death was erroneously reported he got the rare privileged of reading his own obituary.

He really didn’t like the things said about how he created the horrors of ‘modern’ warfare and what a terrible excuse he was for a human being, and how his legacy was arguably the worst in all of human history.

The Nobel prize was born to atone for and offset that legacy.

Do you really want to go back to “unacceptable” war?

History shows that there is no level of violence that is too unacceptable to truly prevent wars.

Prove me wrong, name a week where there wasn’t a war somewhere since the dawn of the nuclear era.

For bonus points, total the days when the nuclear powers weren’t involved in a proxy war in some poor unfortunate third country.

[Manly Warrior]

Its a gravity bomb with wings and hi-speed low drag sensors to guide it to target. So, its a bomb that flies/glides quite well. Released from some higher altitude, it goes 45 miles... Let’s say 20k feet or about 4 miles, it goes quite a ways really quietly and w/o putting the aircraft in close to AD. Standoff.

So, the first and thing the enemy understands before the weapon impacts/detonates is... nothing. The best way to leave our enemies scratching their heads.

[Repeat Offender]

Who wins?

Probably the squad of Marines that were on patrol in the area.

[TXnMA]

"45 miles for a moving vehicle."

"69 miles for a stationary target."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Precision weapons (like Hellfires) & the GBU-53B -- require Precision Target Designation.

QUESTION: Remember the real-time videos of Suleimani's vehicle exploding -- and the photos of his corpse -- including his ID'ing finger ring?

Who took those?

ANSWER: The same SF operators who DESIGNATED his vehicle -- from the ground, with an encoded laser designator.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

In an era where UCAVs are becoming evermore effective, this sounds like a la$t-ga$p effort of the "Fa$t-Mover Cabal" within the USAF to hang onto the CAS mission -- while safely keeping their hyper-expensive Fast-Mover jets & the @SS3$ of their their scarce & expen$ive pilots 45 - 69 miles back in "CYA Territory".

TXnMA    
  

[Ozark Tom]

https://www.wired.com/story/air-forces-venerable-f-15-gets-makeover/

[PIF]

More detailed info here:
Navy Super Hornet Conducts First Guided Launch Of Impressive 'Stormbreaker" Miniature Bomb
The testing milestone comes amid difficulties and delays that have pushed back Air Force plans for the weapon and temporarily halted its production.
By Joseph Trevithick June 15, 2020

[steve86]

Navy spokesperson on record stating that tic-tacs did not disclose or endanger sensitive U.S. technology (paraphrasing). They aren’t ours.

[minnesota_bound]

Test in Iran.

[wildbill]

I don’t know if this is the same bomb I read about last week in connection with the destruction of a high level terrorist in his moving car.

The feature of the bomb is that it has a very small diameter of destruction—about 2 meters or less in diameter. What happens is that when it is a few feet above its target a revolving set of metal “knives” come out and grind the target into hamburger. No, really. we actually have working bombs of this type. I think it may have been used on the Iranian general in Iraq.

[TChad]

The bomb even has its own Wikipedia page:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GBU-53/B_StormBreaker

[Red Badger]

That was the ‘Ninja’ missile.......been around for a while.........AGM-114R9X

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AGM-114_Hellfire

[mdmathis6]

By merely showing off what a device can do such as what these craft were doing doesn’t necessarily give away the store....especially when the Navy claims “wink wink” that it wasn’t “their” tech. Reagan way back when started the SDI programs which spent the Soviets into the poor house A sly move like this by our side could keep our enemies guessing as to what we really have as they dare to think they could move against us.

Now if the tic tacs were truly otherworldly then all nations on the face of the earth should be taking pause and perhaps learn to live at peace with each other!