pierson@cimnet.enet.dec.com (Desert Storm: Done Right, Done Now 04-Mar-1991 1958) (03/06/91)
From: "Desert Storm: Done Right, Done Now 04-Mar-1991 1958" <pierson@cimnet.enet.dec.com> [Mr Mod: Cut to length, if necessary...] Jeff Wolfe <JTW106@PSUVM.PSU.EDU>, writes, in part, concerning BLU-82 > A blurb on CNN today confirmed this, and included footage of a large pallet >being yanked out of the tail end of a C-130 and falling on a 'chute'. It >appeared to explode into a large grey cloud, and then the grey cloud was >detonated. I assume that this was an FAE bomb? I wonder. Arsenal of Democracy describes the BLU-82 as being filled with Ammonium Nitrate & Aluminum. Now I know that would detonate, given a decent primer/booster, but its NOT a FAE, in that it doesnt need AIR (as in Fuel AIR Explosive). Is anybody in a postion to answer authoritatively (CNN doesnt count) able to say if BLU-82 is an FAE. (Arsenal of Democracy says it is, but it just doesn't have the right "ingredients". > The same blurb on CNN had footage on smaller canisters being dropped from >pylons. the bomb would be released, fins would deploy, and the bomb would fall. >Approxamately 10-20 ft above ground, the whole thing "popped" like an upside >down firework, into a large grey cloud. Approx 5 - 10 secs. later the cloud >detonated into a pretty awesome fireball. THAT sounds like an FAE.... > Is the blast from a bomb like this in any way directional? > Can you direct it? Not obviously, as in, say, a shaped charge. One of the good points of FAE is its "distributed overpressure", rather than concentrated overpressure. =========== Herschel H Mayo writes, in part: >I seem to recall, from reading the book by Walter Dornberger, >that the V3 was NOT a gun at all as Nova claimed. Every book i have seen on WWII German Secret weapons agrees, fundamentally with NOVA (hrmmmm. The Bull program wasn't NOVA, it was FRONTLINE...). The V3 had (as with many German projects) a long, troubled gestation. It was almost abandoned, till some professional artillery men were brought in to debug the shell. >It was a complex of underground rails for launching rockets. There were two sets of sites for V2 launch, bunker sites and "non sites" using an erector trailer (meillerwagen(?)). The bunker sites were rapidly detected and bombed into concrete dust, during construction. The Allied airforces had roughly the same luck against the non-sites as later allies were to have against Scud mobile launchers... >The gun with the multiple charges was jokingly called the caterpillar, >according to Dornberger... It seems that the British had more respect >for it that did its inventors. Dornberger was not an inventor of the V3. He was a competitor. The infighting among various weapons programs was endemic to WWII Germany. It is generallyy accepted that at least two subsectins of V3 were brought into action during the closing days of the war, one in the east, one in the west. =================== Will Martin writes, in part: >During 1947, comparative tests were run on various candidates for a >general-purpose lightweight machine gun (it appears these took place at >Springfield Armory). Among the candidates was the T52 ... [employing] >an operating system based on the British Lewis Gun of WWI fame. hrmmmm. Lewis (Col? Maj?) was an American. Unable to interest the US Army in his LMG, he took it to the UK, (ca 1915) who found they had quite an interest in an LMG... (BOOKS have been written on the story of the Lewis, suffce it to say the the design was American, and the first protos were American. ================================= thanks dave pierson |the facts, as accurately as i can manage, Digital Equipment Corporation |the opinions, my own. 600 Nickerson Rd Marlboro, Mass 01752 pierson@cimnet.enet.dec.com "He has read everything, and, to his credit, written nothing." A J Raffles
johnson@amsaa-cleo.brl.mil (Don Johnson) (03/13/91)
From: Don Johnson <johnson@amsaa-cleo.brl.mil> In article <1991Mar6.040610.24007@cbnews.att.com> pierson@cimnet.enet.dec.com (Desert Storm: Done Right, Done Now 04-Mar-1991 1958) writes: > > Is anybody in a postion to > answer authoritatively (CNN doesnt count) able to say if BLU-82 is > an FAE. (Arsenal of Democracy says it is, but it just doesn't have > the right "ingredients". Quoting from Jane's Defense Weekly (23 Feb 91). ...The BLU-82 - a concussion type bomb- was used during the Vietnam War to clear helicopter landing zones in the jungle. Dropped by an MC-130 Hercules, the 'Daisy Cutter' is a 6800kg (15,000 lb) bomb carrying a 5700 kg warhead of GSX, a gelled slurry blast explosive comprised of ammonium nitrate, aluminum powder and polystyrene soap. It is detonated just above ground level by a 96 cm nose probe to create a 70 kg/cm2 (1000 lb/in2) overpressure. Not an FAE.
eachus@aries.mitre.org (Robert I. Eachus) (03/15/91)
From: eachus@aries.mitre.org (Robert I. Eachus)
Yes the Daisy Cutter is an FAE, but not the usual type. Finely
divided aluminum is hypergolic in air (no ignition necessary) if it is
either warm enough or does not have an oxide coating. (Aluminum in
air quickly forms a protective coating of AlO3). If you disperse a
cloud of aluminum in air, when it reaches the "right" proportions it
explodes. Since aluminum is happy to form the nitride if no oxygen is
handy, all the aluminum is consumed.
The ammonium nitrate is set off by the fuse, and oxidizes the
polystrene. This exposes the fresh aluminum surfaces, and when the
cloud has sufficiently mixed with air the second explosion occurs.
You only hear one explosion (assuming that you are far enough away),
because the second explosion starts at the edge of the first
explosion's wavefront, and propagates faster than the speed of sound
(in the external medium) through the internal cloud. Think of it as
two separate fluids, the hot gasses having a higher speed of sound,
and you will realize that almost all the energy winds up in the
explosion wavefront. This is what makes it a concussion type weapon.
--
Robert I. Eachus