The E86 cluster bomb was an American

biological Biology is the scientific study of life and living organisms. It is a broad natural science that encompasses a wide range of fields and unifying principles that explain the structure, function, growth, origin, evolution, and distribution of ...

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 ...

first developed in 1951. Though the U.S. military intended to procure 6,000 E86s, the program was halted in the first half of the 1950s.

History

The E86 cluster bomb was developed as a biological weapon by the United States Army Chemical Corps and 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 ...

beginning in October 1951.Whitby, Simon M. ''Biological Warfare Against Crops'',
Google Books
, Macmillan, 2002, pp. 167-69, (). The Ralph M. Parsons Company was contracted to produce the E86 in October 1952. In 1953 procurement began for 6,000 E86 cluster bombs, with their production expected no earlier than 1958. When

U.S. military The United States Armed Forces are the military forces of the United States. U.S. federal law names six armed forces: the Army, Marine Corps, Navy, Air Force, Space Force, and the Coast Guard. Since 1949, all of the armed forces, except th ...

munition requirements were reviewed in the first half of the 1950s, production and further development of the E86 was halted. The E86 cluster bomb supplanted technologies such as the E77 balloon bomb.Wheelis, Mark, et al. ''Deadly Cultures: Biological Weapons Since 1945'',
Google Books
, Harvard University Press, 2006, p. 218, ().

Specifications

The E86 was similar to the M115 biological bomb, except it was larger. While the M115 weighed , the E86 was a weapon. Regardless, operationally, the E86 was similar to the M115. It was designed as an anti-

crop A crop is a plant that can be grown and harvested extensively for profit or subsistence. In other words, a crop is a plant or plant product that is grown for a specific purpose such as food, Fiber, fibre, or fuel. When plants of the same spe ...

weapon; the

U.S. biological weapons program The United States biological weapons program officially began in spring 1943 on orders from U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt. Research continued following World War II as the U.S. built up a large stockpile of biological agents and weapons. Ove ...

produced three anti crop agents,

wheat Wheat is a group of wild and crop domestication, domesticated Poaceae, grasses of the genus ''Triticum'' (). They are Agriculture, cultivated for their cereal grains, which are staple foods around the world. Well-known Taxonomy of wheat, whe ...

and rye stem rust and

rice blast ''Magnaporthe grisea'', also known as rice blast fungus, rice rotten neck, rice seedling blight, blast of rice, oval leaf spot of graminea, pitting disease, ryegrass blast, Johnson spot, neck blast, wheat blast and , is a plant-pathogenic fungus ...

.Zilinskas, Raymond A. ''Biological Warfare: Modern Offense and Defense'',
Google Books
,

Lynne Rienner Publishers Lynne Rienner Publishers is an independent scholarly and textbook publishing firm based in Boulder, Colorado. It was founded in 1984 and remains one of the few independent publishers in the United States. It publishes primarily in the fields of ...

, Boulder, Colorado: 2000, p. 68, (). The weapon was in a steel case and intended to be dropped from the exterior of an aircraft such as the

B-47 The Boeing B-47 Stratojet (Boeing company designation Model 450) is a retired American long- range, six-engined, turbojet-powered strategic bomber designed to fly at high subsonic speed and at high altitude to avoid enemy interceptor aircraft ...

B-52 The Boeing B-52 Stratofortress is an American long-range, subsonic, jet-powered strategic bomber. The B-52 was designed and built by Boeing, which has continued to provide support and upgrades. It has been operated by the United States Ai ...

. Sub-munitions included the E14 munition; the sub-munition was originally intended as anti-crop weapons as well, but was later altered and used in testing as the U.S. pursued an

entomological warfare Entomological warfare (EW) is a type of biological warfare that uses insects to interrupt supply lines by damaging crops, or to directly harm enemy combatants and civilian populations. There have been several programs which have attempted to instit ...

program.Kirby, Reid.
Using the flea as weapon
", '' Army Chemical Review'', July 2005, accessed December 28, 2008.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:E86 Cluster Bomb Biological weapon delivery systems Cluster munitions Cold War aerial bombs of the United States

History

Specifications

See also

References