FAB-5000
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The FAB 5000NG (, where NG stands for its inventor, Nison Ilicz Gelperin) was a 5,000 kilogram (11,000 lb) large air-dropped, thin cased, high explosive demolition bomb used by the
Soviet Air Forces The Soviet Air Forces (, VVS SSSR; literally "Military Air Forces of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics"; initialism VVS, sometimes referred to as the "Red Air Force") were one of the air forces of the Soviet Union. The other was the Sovie ...
during
World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
. The device was the most powerful aerial bomb in the wartime Soviet inventory (until the FAB-9000 demolition bomb was developed during the
Cold War The Cold War was a period of global Geopolitics, geopolitical rivalry between the United States (US) and the Soviet Union (USSR) and their respective allies, the capitalist Western Bloc and communist Eastern Bloc, which lasted from 1947 unt ...
as part of the M-46 series).


Development

The bomb was designed by Soviet
chemical engineer A chemical engineer is a professional equipped with the knowledge of chemistry and other basic sciences who works principally in the chemical industry to convert basic raw materials into a variety of Product (chemistry), products and deals with ...
(1903-1989) in 1942. Gelperin planned and built bombs with thin metal casings, in order to reduce the use of cast iron and aluminium. In Gelperin's developments, the metal casings represented only 35 percent of the bomb's weight. By 1942, the
State Defense Committee The State Defense Committee () was an extraordinary organ of state power in the Soviet Union during the German-Soviet War, also called the Great Patriotic War, with complete state power in the country. General scope The Soviets set up the GKO ...
of the Soviet Union perceived the need for weapons that could hit hard industrial and military facilities, marshaling yards and fortifications, without the usual scattering of medium-weight bombs. The first attempt came in the form of an explosive unmanned aircraft, a modified version of the TB-3, but the trials of this flying bomb were less than satisfactory. The Directorate of Logistics of the Air Forces eventually requested to Gelperin the development of a five-ton bomb, capable of being dropped by the Pe-8, the heaviest Soviet bomber of the time. The definitive version of the FAB-5000 was fitted with six contact lateral fuses, and the warhead was filled with 3200 kg (7055 lb) of an explosive mixture of
TNT Troponin T (shortened TnT or TropT) is a part of the troponin complex, which are proteins integral to the contraction of skeletal and heart muscles. They are expressed in skeletal and cardiac myocytes. Troponin T binds to tropomyosin and helps ...
,
RDX RDX (Research Department Explosive or Royal Demolition Explosive) or hexogen, among other names, is an organic compound with the formula (CH2N2O2)3. It is white, odorless, and tasteless, widely used as an explosive. Chemically, it is classified ...
, and
aluminium powder Aluminium powder is powdered aluminium. This was originally produced by mechanical means using a stamp mill to create flakes. Subsequently, a process of spraying molten aluminium to create a powder of droplets was developed by E. J. Hall in the ...
. The number of fuses ensured that the force of the blast would disperse laterally, which increases the damage in areas such as industrial compounds and military facilities. In order to load the device, the bomber's bay doors had to remain half-open. The tests, however, were successful. Two bombs were dropped, one from an altitude of 4,000 m and the other from 3,300 m. The first bomb fell in open ground, leaving a crater in diameter and in depth. Grass in a radius of 150 m was charred. The second bomb landed in the woods, and left a crater of in diameter and in depth. Some 600 trees with a diameters ranging from 150mm to 500mm, thinner 150mm were not counted, were torn out within a 70 m radius, while 30 percent of the trees within 135 m radius also fell down. Later tests produced craters up to in diameter and in depth. The project was brought to the assembly line and the bomb was hastily put in service on 15 February 1943.ФАБ-5000
Retrieved on 19 July 2015
By the end of the war, 98 FAB-5000s had been delivered to the Soviet Air Forces, all of them produced in 1943.


Operational use

The first combat use of the FAB-5000 took place on the night of 28 April 1943, when coastal fortifications at
Königsberg Königsberg (; ; ; ; ; ; , ) is the historic Germany, German and Prussian name of the city now called Kaliningrad, Russia. The city was founded in 1255 on the site of the small Old Prussians, Old Prussian settlement ''Twangste'' by the Teuton ...
were hit. The Pe-8 bomber that dropped the bomb from an altitude of was shaken by the shockwave of the explosion. On 19 July 1943, during the
battle of Kursk The Battle of Kursk, also called the Battle of the Kursk Salient, was a major World War II Eastern Front battle between the forces of Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union near Kursk in southwestern Russia during the summer of 1943, resulting in ...
, two Pe-8 dropped two bombs on a railroad yard near Orel, ripping apart a 100 m section of the railway and obliterating dozens of railcars and German military vehicles. Railroads and fuel depots had already been hit around Orel with one bomb on 4 June and with two bombs on 3 July. Two attacks were carried out on advancing German troops on 12 July, but further tactical use was suspended to avoid the risk of
friendly fire In military terminology, friendly fire or fratricide is an attack by belligerent or neutral forces on friendly troops while attempting to attack enemy or hostile targets. Examples include misidentifying the target as hostile, cross-fire while ...
. Soviet sources also claim that two buildings occupied by the
Gestapo The (, ), Syllabic abbreviation, abbreviated Gestapo (), was the official secret police of Nazi Germany and in German-occupied Europe. The force was created by Hermann Göring in 1933 by combining the various political police agencies of F ...
and the Belarusian Auxiliary Police were demolished by two FAB-5000 bombs at the city of
Mogilev Mogilev (; , ), also transliterated as Mahilyow (, ), is a city in eastern Belarus. It is located on the Dnieper, Dnieper River, about from the Belarus–Russia border, border with Russia's Smolensk Oblast and from Bryansk Oblast. As of 2024, ...
,
Belarus Belarus, officially the Republic of Belarus, is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe. It is bordered by Russia to the east and northeast, Ukraine to the south, Poland to the west, and Lithuania and Latvia to the northwest. Belarus spans an a ...
,Бомба Нисона Гельперина
Retrieved on 19 July 2015
apparently on 26 May 1943. On 7 February 1944, another two FAB-5000 bombs were dropped on
Helsinki Helsinki () is the Capital city, capital and most populous List of cities and towns in Finland, city in Finland. It is on the shore of the Gulf of Finland and is the seat of southern Finland's Uusimaa region. About people live in the municipali ...
, in the course of the 1944 Great Raids. Soviet sources claim that railway workshops and a cable factory were destroyed. A couple of days later, two more bombs fell on Finland's capital. The last FAB-5000 was dropped on the railway station of Brailiv,
Ukraine Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the List of European countries by area, second-largest country in Europe after Russia, which Russia–Ukraine border, borders it to the east and northeast. Ukraine also borders Belarus to the nor ...
, on 9 March 1944, during the Soviet offensive on the Kamenets–Podolsky pocket, halting all railroad traffic for several days.


In popular culture

* In the 2012 video game '' War Thunder'', the FAB-5000 is included as a payload option for the Pe-8 bomber. It gained a large amount of infamy and notoriety in the community for being the largest-yield bomb in the game, until it was outclassed by the british 12,000 lbs Blockbuster bomb.


See also

* FAB-9000 * Tallboy * Grand Slam * T-12 Cloudmaker * GBU-43/B MOAB * Blockbuster bomb


Notes

{{Russian and Soviet Aircraft Ordnance Aerial bombs of the Soviet Union World War II weapons of the Soviet Union Anti-fortification weapons World War II aerial bombs Weapons and ammunition introduced in 1943