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Russian President Vladimir Putin has revealed a new unmanned drone equipped with thermobaric weaponry, which poses a significant threat to targets, leaving their enemies with limited options to defend against it, RadarOnline.com has learned.

Russia could use savage superweapons that vaporize bodies and crush internal organs if their assault of Ukraine becomes bogged down, Western officials warned tonight. They fear Vladimir Putin could resort to high-power thermobaric weapons - dubbed the 'father of all bombs' - as brave Ukrainians resist his attempts to take control of Kyiv. There are also concerns that units that are running behind schedule as they encounter stiff opposition could resort to indiscriminate shelling as a terror weapon. Thermobaric weapons - also known as vacuum bombs - are high-powered explosive that use the atmosphere itself as part of the explosion....

Frustrated Russian forces are prepared to “indiscriminately” use thermobaric bombs to seize control of Ukraine, Western officials believe. One western official said it was “likely” that Russia failed to achieve its main objectives on day one of its invasion of Ukraine. The official added: “And my fear with those objectives, that timescale not being met, is if that continues to be a theme where they are delayed and then my concern is that that Russia uses indiscriminate use of indirect fire, particularly artillery systems, thermobaric weapons - which we know Russia has both in its armoury and has used in...

Britain's defence ministry have acknowledged using controversial thermobaric missiles in Syria that rights groups have described as "indiscriminate". Royal Air Force drones used the weapons, often called "vacuum" bombs because they suck oxygen into the powerful blast, against targets in Syria in January and February of this year, an FOI request sent by Drone Wars UK, a campaign group, has revealed. The missiles work by sucking in oxygen from the environment to create a high-temperature explosion with an extremely powerful blast radius. Unlike conventional explosives that cause injuries through shrapnel, the blast effect of thermobaric weapons causes internal organ damage...

Syria strike: Russia unleashes lethal aerial arsenal on Aleppo Hannah Lucinda Smith, Catherine Philp The Times 12:00AM June 23, 2016 Russia is breaching international conventions by dropping incen­diaries similar to white phosphorus on to residential neighbourhoods in the Syrian city of Aleppo in what is thought to be the prelude to a ground assault to retake the city from rebel forces. Photographs have shown what experts believe to be a thermo­baric bomb, the most powerful explosive apart from a nuclear weapon, being detonated next to urban areas, with potentially devastating effects for civilians.

Deeply concerned as it is by the risk of a nuclear-armed Iran, Israel has never even hinted at using atomic weapons to forestall the perceived threat. But now a respected Washington think tank has said that low-radioactive yield "tactical" nuclear warheads would be one way for the Israelis to destroy Iranian uranium enrichment plants in remote, dug-in fortifications. Despite the 65-year-old taboo against carrying out -- or, for that matter, mooting -- nuclear strikes, the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) says in a new report that "some believe that nuclear weapons are the only weapons that can destroy...

An aide to Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has said that if the Islamic republic is attacked, it will retaliate against the Israeli metropolis of Tel Aviv, official media reported on Sunday. "If the enemy attacks Iran, our missiles will strike Tel Aviv," the official IRNA news agency quoted Khamenei's representative in the elite Revolutionary Guards, Mojhtaba Zolnoor, as saying late on Saturday. His comments came as Iranian air defence forces were set to carry out five days of manoeuvres involving simulated attacks on the country's nuclear facilities.

WASHINGTON, Aug 24 (Reuters) - The United States has approved full-rate production of a new Hellfire missile variant, touted by President George W. Bush for its ability to kill guerrillas in urban settings, the missile's manufacturer said on Wednesday. U.S. commanders in Iraq have asked for more of the rounds, said Lt. Col. Kevin Curry, an Army spokesman at the Pentagon, who added that early versions had already been used there in "limited numbers." More than 1,870 Americans have been killed in Iraq since the war began in March 2003. The "thermobaric" Hellfire AGM-114N warhead creates an intense, sustained pressure...

Some experts fear that terrorists are trying to develop thermobaric and fuel-air bombs which can be even more devastating than conventional devices. The Canadian defence research and development agency DRDC is taking the threat so seriously that it is testing thermobaric devices itself in an attempt to develop defences against them. And the US Marine Corps is using computerised war games to devise tactics that could help minimise casualties if insurgents in countries such as Iraq use thermobaric weapons in attacks. The devices use a small charge to generate a cloud of explosive mixed with air. The main explosion is...

WASHINGTON - The United States used a new kind of missile for the first time in Iraq that can destroy the contents of the first floor of a building while leaving the rest of the structure intact, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld told Congress on Wednesday. Rumsfeld said the new Hellfire missile uses a thermobaric warhead - which detonates an explosive "mist" to create a crushing blast wave. American forces used another new kind of thermobaric bomb for the first time during the war in Afghanistan to clear out caves where Taliban and al-Qaida members were hiding. Putting a thermobaric...

INDIAN HEAD, Md. (NNS) -- Scientists and engineers at Naval Surface Warfare Center (NSWC) Indian Head were instrumental in the development of thermobaric weapons used in Afghanistan earlier this year during Operation Enduring Freedom. These warheads, integrated into a laser-guided missile launched from an F-15, proved to be effective in air strikes against al Qaeda and the Taliban. Now, NSWC Indian Head is developing a thermobaric warhead for the Marine Corps to use with the Shoulder-Mounted Multi-Purpose Assault Weapon. As a result of Enduring Freedom, the Marines realized a need for a shoulder-mounted thermobaric warhead with penetration capability to defeat...

<p>Weapon: An inspired team of scientists in Maryland rushed to build a device that could wipe out the mountain hideouts of Taliban and al-Qaida forces.</p> <p>Destruction of the cave's mouth was frighteningly complete. The bomb had skipped through the entrance and erupted in a violent spray of jagged steel, blasting the walls and floor into dust. Where there was wood, suddenly just ash and vapor.</p>

04/09/02 - WASHINGTON -- Despite reports to the contrary, defense officials said they have not violated the law of armed conflict during the war on terrorism. Some media organizations, including The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, have questioned the Air Force’s use of the BLU-118/B “thermobaric” bomb on March 5 against al-Qaida fighters in a cave near Gardez, Afghanistan. Critics have claimed the bomb qualifies as a weapon of mass destruction because it is designed to detonate in two stages. That claim is untrue, officials said. The design of the BLU-118 allows for greater internal blast effectiveness, said Lt. Col. Thomas Ward, program...

Thermobaric, thermoshmaric: The Battle of Shah-i-Kot Valley has established what should have been perfectly plain from the beginning of the American action in Central Asia, which is that victory--that is, the destruction of the forces of Al Qaeda and the Taliban and the subsequent stabilization of Afghanistan-- is not possible without the commitment of American ground troops. The momentous mistake of Tora Bora, where the climax of Operation Enduring Freedom turned into its anti-climax, as we gave control of the porous border with Pakistan to a bunch of lethargic and corruptible Afghan irregulars-- that mistake was corrected at Gardez. There...