The U.S. Air Force Is Trying To Make A Better Bomb

A 15,000-pound BLU-82, an air-to-surface conventional bomb, detonates after being dropped from an MC-130E aircraft in 2008. The AFRL is working on the next type of air-burst bomb that mimics the "Mother of All Bombs" but will probably be smaller, leaner and lighter. (U.S. Air Force photo/Capt. Patrick Nichols)

Defense Tech: Future Air Force Weapon? Baby MOAB

The next “Mother of All Bombs” will probably be smaller, leaner and lighter but will still pack a punch.

It’s what scientists and engineers at the Air Force Research Lab are working on as part of their next-generation munition concept.

Part of the Advanced Ordnance Technologies program, the bomb could be structured to be lighter by using 3D-printed reconstructed loads within the bomb instead of in the casing — plus distributed blast yields, said Dr. John Corley, the core technical competency lead for ordnance sciences at AFRL.

“We’ve been working on printing [munitions] for the past five to 10 years,” Corley said Thursday during a Defense Department Lab day in the Pentagon courtyard.

Corley and colleagues were showcasing a prototype one-seventh the scale of a bomb the lab is working on (not pictured), along with various fuse technologies.

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WNU Editor: Here is a good article that explains two massive bomb types that are in the U.S. military (MOAB and the MOP) .... The Mother of All MOAB Articles (Mark Fredenburg, NR).

Preventing Old Bombs From Claiming New Victirms

How Air Force Database Is Preventing Its Old Bombs From Claiming New Victims -- Christian Science Monitor

The US military estimates that an Air Force lieutenant colonel is saving hundreds of lives a year through a new database he is creating of past bombing campaigns. He's also challenging the history books.

The work of one amateur historian in the US Air Force is quietly upending the conventional wisdom and history of America’s wars.

It is also helping to map the unexploded bombs of America’s air campaigns across Europe and Southeast Asia, saving hundreds of lives each year, by US military estimates.

It has the weighty warrior acronym of the old Nordic god of thunder: THOR, the Theater History of Operations Report, which is fast becoming a critical tool for Air Force officials.

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My Comment: That's a lot of bombs to map and find.

US Navy Seeks 'Safer' Bomb

Show some restraint (Image: Said Khatib/AFP/Getty)

From New Scientist:

COULD a variable-yield bomb reduce the number of innocent people killed or injured during an air attack targeting enemy soldiers? That's the thinking behind a US navy plan to develop a "dial-a-blast" bomb.

The navy is seeking proposals from companies to create a bomb weighing 200 kilograms that can either be detonated at full or reduced power. The idea is that the device could be loaded onto planes before a target has been identified, and the explosive power set by the pilot once a target is known. If there is a risk of killing civilians, then the explosive power can be reduced to ensure a small blast radius. In an unpopulated area the bomb, currently known as the Selectable Output Weapon, could be set so that it has the same power as a regular bomb of the same size. Carrying a single bomb would make it easier and cheaper for the navy to arm its planes.

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The USA’s 30,000 Pound Bomb

British 22,000lb. Grand Slam Bomb (Photo from Wikimedia)

MOPping Up: The USA’s 30,000 Pound Bomb
-- Defense Industry Daily

During the Second World War, attacking heavily protected targets like U-boat pens and protected “V-weapon” facilities was a key challenge. Enter a brilliant British engineer named Barnes Wallis, fresh off the dam-busting “Upkeep” bouncing bomb. His next trick was a 12,000 pound weapon called the “Tallboy,” a streamlined, spin-stabilized bomb with an estimated terminal velocity of over Mach 3.5 when dropped from 20,000 feet. That mass, at that speed, carrying 5,200 pounds of Torpex D1 explosive, made a crater 80 feet deep x 100 feet across when it hit. By 1945, Wallis’ next “Earthquake bomb” was in production – the 22,000 pound “Grand Slam.” They made short work of U-boat pens.

These bombs went out of fashion with the advent of nuclear weapons, but if you wait long enough, fashion comes around again…

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