Originally posted by Nemeth
These bombs that you are talking about are detonated above ground, in WWII they didn't bother doing any testing to see if bombs were more effective if they are detonated above ground or on the ground, they wanted to blow the enemy up, their bombs usually hit the the ground with a vengance
OK, I know what you're trying to say here, but I feel I need to point out that an instantaneous fuze is NOT the same as what has been described as an "air burst". An "air burst" fuze uses a radio signal to detonate at a certain height above ground, and in current parlance, is called variable time or VT. As far as I know, there are no VT fuzes for air delivered ordnance--its only an artillery or mortar fuze. An instantaneous fuze actually hits the ground--that's what sets it off--the impact. The key is that the fuze detonates and the explosive filler of the bomb has an extremely short burn that causes an explosion. During Vietnam, they actually put the fuze on a rod that screwed into the bomb to ensure that it detonated above ground, as the fuze contacting the ground starts the chemical reaction that goes "boom". However, an instaneous fuze is screwed into the nose of the bomb and initiates the reaction upon contact with the ground. The reaction is so quick, that
most of the explosive force exists above the deck, which keeps most of the blast and frag effects above ground, and hence, makes a small crater. During WWII, there were many experiments with bomb delivery, although mostly in the field as opposed to the clinical type testing shown in Sketch's first photo. These tests were conducted to determine how to maximize the effectiveness of fragmentation bombs by using different delivery techniques. Again, I don't know what types of fuzes they used in WWII, but I do know they had delay fuzes and whatever they considered the "normal" fuzes. Mostly they used delay fuzes to achieve low altitude, high-speed delivery so that the delivering aircraft could escape the blast and fragmentation effects of the bombs. Today, the principles are the same, although without a doubt, the technology is advanced. My point was to show that an "instantaneous" fuze used today on the U.S. inventory of conventionally delivered munitions make small craters compared to what you see when they detonate, even though the fuze actually makes contact with the ground before the bomb detonates. These craters are much smaller than what you would think. How they compare to WWII fuzing, I have no idea but if they worked along the same principles, there may not be as much of a crater as you would think. When I say I've seen many deliveries of current munitions, I'm speaking on order of hundreds to low thousands, and feel extremely confident in my presentation so far. I even spoke with an engineer that worked for the RAND Corporation about the development of the JDAM guidance kits (he was my roommates brother and a chemical engineer) and again, make these statements with some confidence. I know when you witness the detonation and see the dust and debris kicked up by these detonations, it is intuitive to think the crater would be large, but I'm telling you, they are not, unless fuzed to explode after they have contacted the ground, and penetrated the ground to some depth.
EDIT: Looked on FAS.org and there is an airburst fuze for the Mk80 series of bombs. Neither airbust nor delay fuzes were authorized for indirect fire (artillery or mortars) or air delivered ordnance where I worked, so none of the craters I saw were either air burst, or delay.
