The M118 is an air-dropped
general-purpose or
demolition
Demolition (also known as razing and wrecking) is the science and engineering in safely and efficiently tearing down buildings and other artificial structures. Demolition contrasts with deconstruction (building), deconstruction, which inv ...
bomb used by United States military forces. It dates back to the time of the
Korean War
The Korean War (25 June 1950 – 27 July 1953) was an armed conflict on the Korean Peninsula fought between North Korea (Democratic People's Republic of Korea; DPRK) and South Korea (Republic of Korea; ROK) and their allies. North Korea was s ...
of the early 1950s. Although it has a nominal weight of , its actual weight, depending on fuse and retardation options, is somewhat higher. A typical non-retarded configuration has a total weight of with an explosive content of of
tritonal
Tritonal is a mixture of 80% TNT and 20% aluminium powder, used in several types of ordnance such as air-dropped bombs. The aluminium increases the total heat output and hence impulse of the TNT – the length of time during which the b ...
. This is a much higher percentage than in the more recent American
Mark 80 series bombs thus the designation as a demolition bomb.
In the late 1950s through the early 1970s it was a standard aircraft weapon, carried by the
F-100 Super Sabre
The North American F-100 Super Sabre is an American supersonic jet fighter aircraft designed and produced by the aircraft manufacturer North American Aviation. The first of the Century Series of American jet fighters, it was the first United ...
,
F-111 Aardvark,
F-104 Starfighter
The Lockheed F-104 Starfighter is an American single-engine, supersonic interceptor. Created as a day fighter by Lockheed as one of the " Century Series" of fighter aircraft for the United States Air Force (USAF), it was developed into an all ...
,
F-105 Thunderchief
The Republic F-105 Thunderchief is an American fighter-bomber that served with the United States Air Force from 1958 to 1984. Capable of Mach 2, it conducted the majority of strike bombing missions during the early years of the Vietnam War. It ...
, and
F-4 Phantom
The McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom II is an American tandem two-seat, twin-engine, all-weather, long-range supersonic jet interceptor and fighter-bomber that was developed by McDonnell Aircraft for the United States Navy.Swanborough and Bowers ...
. Some apparently remain in the
USAF
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 ...
inventory, although they are rarely used today.
It was a component of the GBU-9/B version of the
Rockwell electro-optically guided
Homing Bomb System (HOBOS). This weapon consisted of an M118 fitted with a KMU-390/B guidance kit with an image contrast seeker,
strakes and cruciform tail fins to guide the bomb to its target.
It was also used in the
Texas Instruments
Texas Instruments Incorporated (TI) is an American multinational semiconductor company headquartered in Dallas, Texas. It is one of the top 10 semiconductor companies worldwide based on sales volume. The company's focus is on developing analog ...
Paveway
Paveway is a series of laser-guided bombs (LGBs).
''Pave'' or PAVE is sometimes used as an acronym for ''precision avionics vectoring equipment''; literally, electronics for controlling the speed and direction of aircraft. Laser guidance is a ...
series of
laser-guided bomb
A laser-guided bomb (LGB) is a guided bomb that uses semi-active laser guidance to strike a designated target with greater accuracy than an unguided bomb. First developed by the United States during the Vietnam War, laser-guided bombs quickly pro ...
s as the GBU-11 when it was fitted with the KMU-388 seeker head,
MAU-157 Computer Control Group and the MXU-602 Airfoil Group. This latter consisted of four fixed cruciform fins and four moveable
canards to control the bomb's trajectory. It was also fitted with an
AIM-9B Sidewinder infra-red
Infrared (IR; sometimes called infrared light) is electromagnetic radiation (EMR) with wavelengths longer than that of visible light but shorter than microwaves. The infrared spectral band begins with the waves that are just longer than those of ...
seeker and an
AGM-45 Shrike nose cone during 1967 tests at the
Naval Ordnance Test Station China Lake, possibly in an attempt to create an infra-red guided bomb.
This was called the ''Bombwinder''.
15 of these M118 Paveway Is were evaluated between 15 October to 9 November 1969.
References
* Arsenal of Democracy II, Tom Gervasi, {{ISBN, 0-394-17662-6
webpage on the HOBOS
Cold War aerial bombs of the United States
Military equipment introduced in the 1950s