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Mark 81 Bomb
The Mark 81 is a general-purpose bomb (nicknamed "Firecracker"). It's the smallest of the General-purpose bomb#Modern American GP bombs: the Mark 80 series, Mark 80 series of low-drag (physics), drag general-purpose bombs. Development and deployment Developed for United States military forces in the 1950s, it was first used during the Vietnam War. The bomb consists of a forged steel case with of Composition H6, Minol (explosive), Minol or Tritonal explosive. The power of the Mk 81 was found to be inadequate for U.S. military tactical use, and it was quickly discontinued, although license-built copies or duplicates of this weapon remain in service with various other nations. Development of a precision guided variant of the Mk 81 bomb (GBU-29) was started due to its potential to reduce collateral damage compared to larger bombs, but this program has now been cancelled in favor of the Small Diameter Bomb. Variants *Mark 81 Snakeye fitted with a Mark 14 TRD (Tail Retarding Device) ...
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A-4 Skyhawk
The Douglas A-4 Skyhawk is a single-seat subsonic carrier-capable light attack aircraft designed and produced by the American aerospace manufacturer Douglas Aircraft Company, and later, McDonnell Douglas. It was originally designated A4D under the United States Navy's pre-1962 designation system. The Skyhawk was developed during the early 1950s on behalf of the Navy and United States Marine Corps as a replacement for the propeller-driven Douglas A-1 (AD) Skyraider. The A-4 is a compact, straightforward, and lightweight aircraft for the era; its maximum takeoff weight of was roughly half of the Navy's weight specification. The Skyhawk has a short-span delta wing configuration, a tricycle undercarriage, and is powered by a single turbojet engine. The U.S. Navy issued a contract for the aircraft on 12 June 1952. On 22 June 1954, the XA4D-1 prototype performed its maiden flight; it went on to set a world speed record of 695.163 mph on 15 October 1955. On 1 October 1956, t ...
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Collateral Damage
"Collateral damage" is a term for any incidental and undesired death, injury or other damage inflicted, especially on civilians, as the result of an activity. Originally coined to describe military operations, it is now also used in non-military contexts to refer to negative unintended consequences of an action. Since the development of precision-guided munitions in the 1970s, military forces often claim to have gone to great lengths to minimize collateral damage. Critics of use of the term "collateral damage" see it as a euphemism that dehumanizes non-combatants killed or injured during combat, used to reduce the perceived culpability of military leadership in failing to prevent non-combatant casualties. Collateral damage does not include civilian casualties caused by military operations that are intended to terrorize or kill enemy civilians (e.g., the bombing of Chongqing during World War II and Russian strikes against Ukrainian infrastructure openly described as "ret ...
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Mark 84 Bomb
The Mark 84 or BLU-117 is a American general-purpose bomb, general purpose aircraft bomb. It is the largest of the Mark 80 series of weapons. Entering service during the Vietnam War, it became a commonly used US heavy unguided bomb. At the time, it was the third largest bomb by weight in the US inventory behind the BLU-82 "Daisy Cutter" and the Mark 118 bomb, M118 "demolition" bomb. It is currently sixth in size due to the addition of the GBU-28 in 1991, the GBU-43/B Massive Ordnance Air Blast bomb (MOAB) in 2003, and the Massive Ordnance Penetrator, GBU-57A/B Massive Ordnance Penetrator (MOP). Development and use The Mark 84 has a nominal weight of , but its actual weight varies depending on its fin, fuze options, and retardation configuration, from . It is a streamlined steel casing filled with of tritonal high explosive. The Mark 84 can form a crater wide and deep. It can penetrate up to of metal or of concrete, depending on the height from which it is dropped, ...
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Mark 83 Bomb
The Mark 83 is a bomb, part of the Mark 80 series of low-drag general-purpose bombs in United States service. Development and deployment The nominal weight of the bomb is , although its actual weight varies between and , depending on fuze options, and fin configuration. The Mk 83 is a streamlined steel casing containing of tritonal high explosive. When filled with PBXN-109 thermally insensitive explosive, the bomb is designated BLU-110. The Mk 83/BLU-110 is used as the warhead for a variety of precision-guided weapons, including the GBU-16 Paveway laser-guided bombs, the GBU-32 JDAM and Quickstrike sea mines. The Mk 83 is also used as the warhead in a variety of Pakistani smart bombs made by GIDS. During Operation Swift Retort in 2019, 2 JF-17 Thunders of the No. 16 Squadron "Black Panthers" armed with newly developed Mk. 83 Range Extension Kit (REK) bombs struck military targets in Indian-administered Jammu and Kashmir. This bomb is most typically used by the U ...
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Mark 82 Bomb
The Mark 82 is a unguided, low- drag general-purpose bomb, part of the United States Mark 80 series. The explosive filling is usually tritonal, though other compositions have sometimes been used. Development and deployment With a nominal weight of , it is one of the smallest bombs in current service, and one of the most common air-dropped weapons in the world. Although the nominal weight is , its actual weight varies depending on its configuration, from . It is a streamlined steel casing containing of Tritonal high explosive. The is offered with a variety of fin kits, fuzes, and retarders for different purposes. The is the warhead for the GBU-12 laser-guided bombs and for the GBU-38 JDAM. Over many years Nitro-Chem in Bydgoszcz, Poland was the only provider of certified TNT for U.S. Department of Defense. As of 2021 also the General Dynamics plant in Garland, Texas was providing bombs for the US Armed Forces. The is currently undergoing a minor redesign to ...
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Joint Direct Attack Munition
The Joint Direct Attack Munition (JDAM) is a guidance kit that converts unguided bombs, or "dumb bombs", into all-weather precision-guided munitions (PGMs). JDAM-equipped bombs are guided by an integrated inertial guidance system coupled to a Global Positioning System (GPS) receiver, giving them a published range of up to . JDAM-equipped bombs range from . The JDAM's guidance system was jointly developed by the United States Air Force and United States Navy, hence the "joint" in JDAM. When installed on a bomb, the JDAM kit is given a GBU (Guided Bomb Unit) identifier, superseding the Mark 80 or BLU (Bomb, Live Unit) nomenclature of the bomb to which it is attached. The JDAM is not a stand-alone weapon; rather it is a "bolt-on" guidance package that converts unguided gravity bombs into PGMs. The key components of the system are a tail section with aerodynamic control surfaces, a (body) strake kit, and a combined inertial guidance system and GPS guidance control unit. The JDAM ...
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Napalm
Napalm is an incendiary mixture of a gelling agent and a volatile petrochemical (usually gasoline or diesel fuel). The name is a portmanteau of two of the constituents of the original thickening and gelling agents: coprecipitated aluminium salts of ''na''phthenic acid and ''palm''itic acid. A team led by chemist Louis Fieser originally developed napalm for the US Chemical Warfare Service in 1942 in a secret laboratory at Harvard University. Of immediate first interest was its viability as an incendiary device to be used in American fire bombing campaigns during World War II; its potential to be coherently projected into a solid stream that would carry for distance (instead of the bloomy fireball of pure gasoline) resulted in widespread adoption in infantry and tank/boat mounted flamethrowers as well. Napalm burns at temperatures ranging from . It burns longer than gasoline, is more easily dispersed, and adheres to its targets. These traits make it both effective and con ...
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Guided Bomb
A guided bomb (also known as a smart bomb, guided bomb unit, or GBU) is a precision-guided munition designed to achieve a smaller circular error probable (CEP). The creation of precision-guided munitions resulted in the retroactive renaming of older bombs as unguided bombs or "dumb bombs". Guidance Guided bombs carry a guidance system which is usually monitored and controlled from an external device. A guided bomb of a given weight must carry fewer explosives to accommodate the guidance mechanisms. Radio The Germans were first to introduce precision guided munitions (PGMs) in combat, using the 1,400-kg (3,100 lb) MCLOS-guidance Fritz X to successfully attack the Italian battleship ''Roma'' in September 1943. The closest Allied equivalents were the 1,000-lb (454 kg) AZON (AZimuth ONly), used in both Europe and the CBI Theater, and the US Navy's Bat, primarily used in the Pacific Theater of World War II which used autonomous, on-board radar guidance. In addi ...
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Close Air Support
Close air support (CAS) is defined as aerial warfare actions—often air-to-ground actions such as strafes or airstrikes—by military aircraft against hostile targets in close proximity to friendly forces. A form of fire support, CAS requires detailed integration of each air mission with fire and movement of all forces involved. CAS may be conducted using aerial bombs, glide bombs, missiles, rockets, autocannons, machine guns, and even directed-energy weapons such as lasers.''Close Air Support''. United States Department of Defense, 2014. The requirement for detailed integration because of proximity, fires or movement is the determining factor. CAS may need to be conducted during shaping operations with special forces if the mission requires detailed integration with the fire and movement of those forces. A closely related subset of air interdiction, battlefield air interdiction, denotes interdiction against units with near-term effects on friendly units, but which does not ...
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Drag (physics)
In fluid dynamics, drag, sometimes referred to as fluid resistance, is a force acting opposite to the direction of motion of any object moving with respect to a surrounding fluid. This can exist between two fluid layers, two solid surfaces, or between a fluid and a solid surface. Drag forces tend to decrease fluid velocity relative to the solid object in the fluid's path. Unlike other resistive forces, drag force depends on velocity. Drag force is proportional to the relative velocity for low-speed flow and is proportional to the velocity squared for high-speed flow. This distinction between low and high-speed flow is measured by the Reynolds number. Drag is instantaneously related to vorticity dynamics through the Josephson-Anderson relation. Examples Examples of drag include: * Net force, Net Aerodynamic force, aerodynamic or Fluid dynamics, hydrodynamic force: Drag acting opposite to the direction of movement of a solid object such as cars, aircraft, and boat hulls. * Viscou ...
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Small Diameter Bomb
The GBU-39/B Small Diameter Bomb (SDB) is a precision-guided glide bomb that is intended to allow aircraft to carry a greater number of smaller, more accurate bombs. Most US Air Force aircraft will be able to carry (using the BRU-61/A rack) a pack of four SDBs in place of a single Mark 84 bomb. It first entered service in 2006. The Ground Launched Small Diameter Bomb (GLSDB) was later developed to enable the SDB to be launched from a variety of ground launchers and configurations. Description The original SDB is equipped with a GPS-aided inertial navigation system to attack fixed/stationary targets such as fuel depots, bunkers, etc. The second variant, Raytheon's GBU-53/B SDB II, will include a thermal seeker and radar with automatic target recognition features for striking mobile targets such as tanks, vehicles, and mobile command posts. The small size of the bomb allows a single-strike aircraft to carry more of them than previously available bombs, and thus strik ...
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Precision Guided
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 types of munitions, typically missiles or artillery shells, to allow for high-accuracy strikes against designated targets. PGMs are designed to precisely hit a predetermined target, typically with a margin of error (or circular error probable, CEP) that is far smaller than conventional unguided munitions. Unlike unguided munitions, PGMs use active or passive control mechanisms capable of steering the weapon towards its intended target. PGMs are capable of mid-flight course corrections, allowing them to adjust and hit the intended target even if conditions change. PGMs can be deployed from various platforms, including aircraft, naval ships, ground vehicles, ground-based launchers, and UAVs. PGMs are primarily used in military operations to ac ...
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