"Is This A ‘Bunker Buster’ Or Something Else?" Topic

Whatever it is, it looks fantastic!

Dan
link

Something quite old, I think.
A version of a shaped charge explosive.

Looks like a Viper strike.

Looks like a GBU-39 Small Diameter Bomb. Could be wrong though

Since there is just one I'm not sure; but the results resemble my grandkids let loose in the house. H

Not a "bunker buster". Looks like a normal smart weapon. A bunker buster produces a much greater seismic wave than I could observe from the video.

Does a standard bomb go through 8 or 10 feet of what I assume is reinforced concrete? Cuts through it like butter – pretty cool!

It's a bunker buster developed for the US Air Force just before the first or second gulf war. I remember seeing the video when its deployment was first announced.

Correction as David Manley said it's a GBU-39 Small Diameter Bomb

Thanks to David Manley's and jdginaz's succesful identification of the munition, here's a video from the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum on YouTube that includes that footage:

YouTube link

Pretty impressive power from a 250lb bomb!

Indeed!

There's a certain amount of beauty when bombs are filmed in slow motion, when they first detonate and you see the shockwave as the gases expand. So much has to happen in just the blink of an eye.

Dan

That video in the OP looks like it is penetrating about 8 feet of concrete.

The text on the GBU-39 says it weighs 250 lbs. and is 7.5" in diameter. Such an AP bomb should only penetrate about 3" of armor from 5000 ft. (800 fps) The text says it could penetrate about 3 ft. of reinforced concrete. Which is in line of 12 x 1 of concrete to armor ratio.

So why does the video seem like it is penetrating more than twice that amount?

There may be a multi-stage warhead involved for the really deep penetration. Kinda like tandem charge HEAT for tanks, but only the first stage is shaped charge. second stage is thinner and longer.

Or, it could be that the bomb is hitting at significantly higher velocity, since it's probably starting at 500mph horizontal velocity plus gravity.

Some information must be missing. As a free fall bomb even released at 15,000 feet with a 30° dive and 500 mph it will impact at 30° and only penetrate 4.1" of steel.

The video looks like it is impacting at vertical. Jets don't dive-bomb so maybe the wings can steer it into the vertical. So maybe they can steer it into a fall where the horizontal speed can be translated into vertical speed. In that case it would be like a dive-bomber releasing at 500 mph at something like 80-90 degree dive. That would up the penetration to 4.6".

It appears from the video that the inside of the structure is not as tall as the sides. Note the delay from the moment it passes the edge to the appearance of the debris spray.

@Mobius: "The video looks like it is impacting at vertical. Jets don't dive-bomb…"
In the linked video above from Steve Wilcox, the munition is shown with pop out wings allowing it to glide some distance to the target. Once at or near the target, it can steer or be steered into a vertical drop.

@williamb: "It appears from the video that the inside of the structure is not as tall as the sides."
I was wondering this too. I was thinking the front and rear may be thicker and taller to defend against a horizontal attack. (??? just a guess.)

@Mobius, jets do indeed dive bomb. And yes, it is a Small Diameter Bomb.