The VB-3 Razon was a high-angle freefall guided bomb developed by the

United States Army Air Force The United States Army Air Forces (USAAF or AAF) was the major land-based aerial warfare service component of the United States Army and ''de facto'' aerial warfare service branch of the United States during and immediately after World War II ...

during the 1940s. Razon (from "

range Range may refer to: Geography * Range (geographic), a chain of hills or mountains; a somewhat linear, complex mountainous or hilly area (cordillera, sierra) ** Mountain range, a group of mountains bordered by lowlands * Range, a term used to i ...

and

azimuth An azimuth (; from ) is the horizontal angle from a cardinal direction, most commonly north, in a local or observer-centric spherical coordinate system. Mathematically, the relative position vector from an observer ( origin) to a point ...

only") was a standard AN-M65 1,000-pound general-purpose bomb, the same basic ordnance unit used for its Azimuth-Only guided predecessor, the VB-1 Azon guided ordnance, with the Razon concept fitted with flight control surfaces that also enabled adjustment in the vertical plane, like the Luftwaffe's heavier

Fritz X Fritz X was a German guided anti-ship glide bomb used during World War II. Developed alongside the Henschel Hs 293, ''Fritz X'' was one of the first precision guided weapons deployed in combat. ''Fritz X'' was a nickname used both by Allied an ...

armored anti-ship guided ordnance. Development of the Razon began in 1942, but it did not see use during World War II although it was combat ready in the summer of 1945. The VB-4 used a 2,000-pound bomb.

Development

In April 1942, the USAAF's

Air Materiel Command Air Materiel Command (AMC) was a United States Army Air Forces and United States Air Force command. Its headquarters was located at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio. In 1961, the command was redesignated the Air Force Logistics Command ...

ecame part of ATSC (Air Technical Service Command) in 1944">Air_Technical_Service_Command.html" ;"title="ecame part of ATSC (Air Technical Service Command">ecame part of ATSC (Air Technical Service Command) in 1944began the development of the Azon family (VB-1 half-ton and VB-2 one-ton) guided bombs. Following on the VB-1 Azon bomb (azimuth-only), the Razons used two tandem annular wing assemblies, the aft assembly used for control. "The Razon guidance kit had two octagonal shrouds (similar to the 12-sided annular tail of the

guided ordnance) in a tandem arrangement. The most problematic part in Razon development was to build a suitably modified bombsight, which would allow the bombardier to correctly judge the bomb's deviation in range so that the range control could be used effectively." The guidance command link used up to 47 preset channels. Around 3,000 Razons were built during 1945. Azon and Razon testing continued through mid-1946 in the Mojave Desert of California. In 1946, extensive tests were done on Razon by the Air Proving Ground Command, Eglin Field, Florida, "contemplating using the missile aboard all-weather bombers. Nothing materialized, however, until 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 ...

when the Far East Air Forces ordered and used the

Tarzon The ASM-A-1 Tarzon, also known as VB-13, was a guided bomb developed by the United States Army Air Forces during the late 1940s. Mating the guidance system of the earlier Razon radio-controlled weapon with a British Tallboy bomb, the ASM-A-1 sa ...

, a Tallboy-Razon combination." In 1948, testing by the 1st Experimental Guided Missiles Group at Eglin still showed Razon to be far more accurate in azimuth than range. "For example, of the eight bombs tested in August 1948, fully three out of four had an azimuth error of zero, while the average range error was almost 200 feet. Only one of the eight scored a direct hit. Still, Razon bombing showed enough promise in early testing that approximately five hundred tail assemblies were produced by Union Switch and Signal Company and stockpiled, allowing their use in the early months of the Korean War."

Operational use

The Razon weapon did not see significant use until the

, where B-29s carrying up to 8 rounds were used to attack bridges in the early months of the war. Several hundred Razons "were dropped on North Korean bridges, and although the overall reliability of the bombs was rather low, some targets were actually destroyed. However, in general multiple hits by the small the 450 kg (1000 lb) bombs were needed to destroy a large bridge span, and the USAF's use of guided bombs for these special missions switched to the much larger VB-13/ASM-A-1 Tarzon." "Despite these difficulties, B-29 bombardiers destroyed 15 bridges with Razon bombs."

References

External links

* {{Use dmy dates, date=June 2017 Weapons and ammunition introduced in 1945 Guided bombs of the United States