The CBU-87 Combined Effects Munition (CEM) is a

cluster bomb A cluster munition is a form of air-dropped or ground-launched explosive weapon that releases or ejects smaller submunitions. Commonly, this is a cluster bomb that ejects explosive bomblets that are designed to kill personnel and destroy vehi ...

used by the

United States Air Force The United States Air Force (USAF) is the Air force, air service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is one of the six United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. Tracing its ori ...

, developed by

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Honeywell Honeywell International Inc. is an American publicly traded, multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina. It primarily operates in four areas of business: aerospace, building automation, industrial automa ...

and introduced in 1986 to replace the earlier cluster bombs used in the

Vietnam War The Vietnam War (1 November 1955 – 30 April 1975) was an armed conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia fought between North Vietnam (Democratic Republic of Vietnam) and South Vietnam (Republic of Vietnam) and their allies. North Vietnam w ...

. CBU stands for Cluster Bomb Unit. When the CBU-87 is used in conjunction with the Wind Corrected Munitions Dispenser guidance tail kit, it becomes much more accurate, and is designated CBU-103. The basic CBU-87 is designed to be dropped from an

aircraft An aircraft ( aircraft) is a vehicle that is able to flight, fly by gaining support from the Atmosphere of Earth, air. It counters the force of gravity by using either Buoyancy, static lift or the Lift (force), dynamic lift of an airfoil, or, i ...

at any

altitude Altitude is a distance measurement, usually in the vertical or "up" direction, between a reference datum (geodesy), datum and a point or object. The exact definition and reference datum varies according to the context (e.g., aviation, geometr ...

and any

air speed In aviation, airspeed is the speed of an aircraft relative to the air it is flying through (which itself is usually moving relative to the ground due to wind). In contrast, the ground speed is the speed of an aircraft with respect to the surf ...

. It is a free-falling bomb and relies on the aircraft to aim it before it drops; once dropped it needs no further instruction, as opposed to

guided munition A precision-guided munition (PGM), also called a smart weapon, smart munition, or smart bomb, is a type of weapon system that integrates advanced guidance and control systems, such as GPS, laser guidance, or infrared sensors, with various type ...

s or

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s. The bomb can be dropped by a variety of modern-day aircraft. It is long, has a diameter of , and weighs roughly . The price is US$14,000 per bomb. Each CBU-87 consists of an SUU-65B canister, a

fuze In military munitions, a fuze (sometimes fuse) is the part of the device that initiates its function. In some applications, such as torpedoes, a fuze may be identified by function as the exploder. The relative complexity of even the earliest fu ...

with 12 time delay options and 202 submunitions (or bomblets) designated BLU-97/B Combined Effects Bomb. Each bomblet is a yellow cylinder with a length of 20 centimeters and a diameter of 6 centimeters. The BLU-97/B bomblets are designed to be used against armor, people and soft skinned targets and consist of a

shaped charge A shaped charge, commonly also hollow charge if shaped with a cavity, is an explosive charge shaped to focus the effect of the explosive's energy. Different types of shaped charges are used for various purposes such as cutting and forming metal, ...

, a scored steel fragmentation case and a

zirconium Zirconium is a chemical element; it has Symbol (chemistry), symbol Zr and atomic number 40. First identified in 1789, isolated in impure form in 1824, and manufactured at scale by 1925, pure zirconium is a lustrous transition metal with a greyis ...

ring for incendiary effects. The CBU-87 can also be equipped with an optional FZU-39/B proximity sensor with 10 altitude selections. When dropped from an aircraft, the bomb starts spinning. There are 6 speeds that can adjust the bomb's rate of spin. After it drops to a certain altitude, the canister breaks open and the submunitions are released. Each bomblet has a ring of tabs at the tail end; these orient the bomblet and deploy an inflatable decelerator to decrease the falling speed of the bomblet. When the submunitions hit the ground, they will cover a large area and the CBU-87 can be adjusted so it can cover a smaller or wider area. Depending on the rate of spin and the altitude at which the canister opens, it can cover an area between 20×20 meters (low release altitude and a slow rate of spin) to 120×240 meters (high release altitude and a high rate of spin). Manufacturers and the Department of Defense have claimed that each bomb's failure rate is about 5%. This equates to about 10 bomblets not exploding on impact of the 202 bomblets dropped. Landmine Action claimed the failure rate of the BLU-97/Bs used in the Kosovo campaign was higher, between 7 and 8 percent.

Operational use

During Operation

Desert Storm , combatant2 = , commander1 = , commander2 = , strength1 = Over 950,000 soldiers3,113 tanks1,800 aircraft2,200 artillery systems , page = https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GAOREPORTS-PEMD-96- ...

, the US Air Force dropped 10,035 CBU-87s. During

Operation Allied Force The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) carried out an aerial bombing campaign against the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia during the Kosovo War. The air strikes lasted from 24 March 1999 to 10 June 1999. The bombings continued until an a ...

, the US dropped about 1,100 cluster bombs, mostly CBU-87s. On 7 May 1999, a CBU-87 was used in one of the most serious incidents involving civilian deaths and cluster bombs, the Niš cluster bombing.

References

Bibliography

"Equipment guide." Military.com. 25 Mar 2007

External links

{{USAF Weapons Aerial bombs of the United States Cluster munitions Explosive weapons Military equipment introduced in the 1980s

Operational use

See also

References

Bibliography

External links