Posted on 07/17/2010 11:49:32 PM PDT by ErnstStavroBlofeld
It was always something of a mystery why the U.S. Air Force developed the 285 pound (129 kg) Small Diameter Bomb (SDB). The official story was that this GPS guided smart bomb was needed for urban warfare. The smaller blast (17kg/38 pounds of explosives, compared to 127 kg/280 pounds for the 500 pound bomb) from the SDB resulted in fewer civilian casualties. Friendly troops can be closer to the target when an SDB explodes. While the 500, 1,000 and 2,000 pound bombs have a spectacular effect when they go off, they are often overkill. The troops on the ground would rather have more, smaller, GPS bombs available. This caused the 500 pound JDAM to get developed quickly and put into service. But the smaller SDB was always a mystery, with many produced, but few actually used. But the SDB also has a hard steel, ground penetrating, front end, that can penetrate nearly two meters (six feet) of concrete. Not much use for that in urban warfare. But such a capability is very useful for taking out underground installations, particularly the entrances and air intakes. North Korea, for example, has twenty airfields with underground hangars for the aircraft. Usually tunneled into a nearby hill or mountain, the underground hangar allows fighters and bombers to quickly taxi out onto the runways and take off. Since North Korea doesn't have that many operational warplanes, it's believed that some of these "airfields" actually have long range rockets and ballistic missiles, mounted on trailers equipped to erect the missile into launch position and fire it off, in the underground hangars. The trailers are hauled out of the tunnels, onto the air field, the missile fired, and then the trailer is taken back inside to be reloaded.
(Excerpt) Read more at strategypage.com ...
Good.
The whole genesis of the SDB was to turn the F-22 into the FA-22.
It’s a useless bomb.
It is currently integrated on the F-15E Strike Eagle though
How about the neutron burst nano ray ?
How about that sex bomb or whatever it was from that Woody Allen movie?
What plane is that.. F-15?
The F-15 Eagle
You remember the F-15 Eagle?
Useless?
Not for close air support.
It's the GAY BOMB!
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,281217,00.html
"No money was spent, Reardon said, and no such weapons are being considered."
Suuuuuuuuure. That's what they say. But you never can trust those military types. They're always up to somethin'!
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