Explosives

[DREDger]

Reading about the wars of the 21st century, I've noticed that the bomb of choice seems to be the 500lb'er.  I wonder how the explosives compare to that of WW2. 

For example, would a 500lb'er of today maybe be equal to the 1000lb'er of WW2, due to advancement of technology and such?

[yanksfan]

I would think your right. The chemicle make up of the explosive can be changed to burn more rapidly, the quicker the burn the faster the expansion the bigger the boom.

But thats just figuring that they would have updated the explosive by now.

[Murdr]

I believe they are fairly comprarable....
AN-M64
MK82

[Buzzard7]

The MSD for them are comparable from what I have been told. MSD= minimum safe distance

[ColKLink]

physics class,....the faster  the speed when a bomb is released, 250 mph ww2) (750 or more now thats a guess btw!) I dont remember what the f/a 18 book requires,) the more kinetic energy it has, hence more damage when it hits the ground....thats one reason.

[thrila]

I believe with improved precision there is no need to bomb a target with a large bomb in order to ensure it is destroyed, potentially causing a large amount collateral damage, when a direct hit with a 500lb bomb will do the trick.

[Lusche]

physics class,....the faster  the speed when a bomb is released, 250 mph ww2) (750 or more now thats a guess btw!) I dont remember what the f/a 18 book requires,) the more kinetic energy it has, hence more damage when it hits the ground....thats one reason.

Generally, kinetic energy is not what a HE bomb is relying on when doing it's job - unless part of the requirement is penetrating into a structure. But then again, this penetration is not doing the damage itself, it mereley making sure the HE will explode at a place were the damage will be maximised.
Against many (if not most targets), it was often strived at getteing as little penetration as possible before the bombs went off.

[moot]

Yep, I'm pretty sure you have to be going pretty fast and/or have a lot of mass to start getting explosive results from impact speed.

[Have]

Actually kinetic energy bombs are quite common and quite widely used in Iraq - do a search with google for "concrete bomb"

[moot]

But it's not explosive, is it?  It reads like an armor piercing effect like Lusche describes, not something that enhances the explosive power.  I'd think for extra speed to help explosive power, you'd have to get either air or the target or the bomb's otherwise inert material to combust, somehow.  That would be a lot of speed and/or mass.

[Lusche]

This is only a very recent development. For decades bombing wasn't precise enough for such a thing. And it's more like a crutch - actually the damaging by kinetic energy only is just used because of the negative impact of collateral damage is judged too big to use coventional bombs. And such concrete bombs are still somewhat "esoteric" items for specialised uses.

And like Moot already mentioned - once you put a considerable quantity of high explosives into the bomb, the KE is getting negligible very quickly

[moot]

You have to admit though, there's something really cool about something like a big rod dropped from on high (or orbit).. like an arrow from Cupid    "Love conquers all"

[ColKLink]

it makes a big differnce on impact. (the speed at which it was released.) seen it on the history ch, so it is so.........besides....my f/a 18......oh geez nm

[hlbly]

You have to admit though, there's something really cool about something like a big rod dropped from on high (or orbit).. like an arrow from Cupid    "Love conquers all"

I believe they worked on a space based system once called brilliant pebbles that used this method .

[Rich46yo]

You have to admit though, there's something really cool about something like a big rod dropped from on high (or orbit).. like an arrow from Cupid    "Love conquers all"

To bad it doesn't work that well, unless tipped with plutonium. Fact is enemies can dig much deeper then we can get to them. The latest Yank bunker busters will penetrate maybe 100' of ground, which aint bad, or chop thru maybe 20' of solid concrete, again which isn't bad. If I remember right the explosive is in the 500lb class for it and it uses a high tech explosive, "we also have a 3rd gen 2,000lb class one". So for legacy bunker targets I guess it has some uses but I bet there was a whole lot of digging deeper after we first used the thing. I'd bet the Israelis used some BLU bombs when they blowed up that Syrian reactor. As far as I know all our hard penetration bombs also carry explosive warheads.

I know 500lb general purpose bombs were re-designed after WW-ll but I'm not sure if the chemical mix causes a bigger blast but my guess would be yes. I know the fuzes are much better and the bombs can be set for air burst of ground burst. That and they are more aerodynamic. We had tons of this stuff laying around from 'nam when I was in and Im sure we were thrilled to have somebody to drop them on during Gulf 1. Nothing worse then a wasted bomb.