| Tango01 | 19 Oct 2014 11:02 p.m. PST |
… That Will Replace America's Inventory Of Cluster Bombs. "The U.S. Air Force is developing a terrifying new weapon to replace cluster bombs. Instead of scattering thousands of tiny bomblets over a target, the service plans to rain down iron fragments … to essentially achieve the same effect. During the opening phase of Operation Iraqi Freedom in 2003, the United States and coalition forces dropped thousands of cluster bombs on targets including missile and radar sites, Iraqi aircraft, armored vehicles, artillery batteries and troops. While effective, the cluster bombs often left behind thousands unexploded bomblets that killed many civilians…"
Full article here
link Amicalement
Armand |
| Only Warlock | 20 Oct 2014 5:47 a.m. PST |
This is just airforce speak for a fragmentation bomb. Just like WW2 tech. No way it can replace the effects of a submunition deliver system. |
| Tango01 | 20 Oct 2014 10:51 a.m. PST |
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| Lion in the Stars | 20 Oct 2014 1:15 p.m. PST |
No way it can replace the effects of a submunition deliver system. Sure it can: Thin walls and pack the inside full of 3" nails, with just enough bursting charge to break the casing. Not as effective as submunitions or the artillery versions of Beehive rounds due to the slower speed, but still pretty nasty. |
| Only Warlock | 20 Oct 2014 5:21 p.m. PST |
Lion, that does not do what submunitions do. They can be set to release in different patterns, can be set to release at different heights and are equally lethal across the entirety of the beaten zone. A frag bomb's lethality is reduced by a square of it's distance from the detonation point. |
| Lion in the Stars | 20 Oct 2014 7:44 p.m. PST |
Well, if you really want to get technical, even cluster bombs have their lethality reduced by the square of the distance from the detonation point. They just have smaller booms and more of them. You could make a flechette bomb do most of the same things, including the various patterns. |
| Lion in the Stars | 21 Oct 2014 6:59 p.m. PST |
What non-frag capabilities are there for a cluster bomb? Big unitaries I can see (piercing runways, bunker busting, etc), but grenade-size submunitions? |
| Bellbottom | 22 Oct 2014 6:08 a.m. PST |
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| Lion in the Stars | 22 Oct 2014 7:19 p.m. PST |
Area denial minelets? Isn't there a new law of war banning those? |
| Bellbottom | 23 Oct 2014 3:17 a.m. PST |
Only if your side plays by the rules |
| Deadone | 23 Oct 2014 8:08 p.m. PST |
Don't some of the newer submunition types have individually targetted bomblets? |
| Pyrate Captain | 24 Oct 2014 2:28 p.m. PST |
Another article of the National Enquirer edition of Aviation Week. |
| Lion in the Stars | 24 Oct 2014 6:19 p.m. PST |
Don't some of the newer submunition types have individually targetted bomblets? Not sure about air-dropped bombs, but there are a few artillery shells where that is the case. SADARM, for example. But individually-targeted submunitions don't need to be explosive. Maybe rocket-boosted, but still non-explosive. Problem is that the expensive part of the bomb is the guidance system… |
decides on hills for his Team Yankee project.
