BLU-107 Durandal

Quote: Originally posted by franklyn

Funny you can find almost everything about this 40 year old ordnance except the filler and content of its component charges.

Quote: Originally posted by hissingnoise

Quote: Originally posted by franklyn   Funny you can find almost everything about this 40 year old ordnance except the filler and content of its component charges. There may be no standard fill for the durandal because a number of HEs would seem to fit the bill. Though obsolete from the US the stadpoint durandal, requiring a low-altitude run-in, would seem suitable only for attacking lightly-defended targets, and is falling from favour for this reason. . .

Iron bombs w/GPS guidance if there concerned with high value targets, collateral damage or antiaircraft fire of any sorts like on a battlefield/airfeld/city. You are correct however that in desert storm 92% of air delivered munitions were dumb bombs mainly due to cost and other factors.Still the fact remains that high value, well defended targets are/were generally taken out by guided munitions.Iron bombs have thier place obviously but I would still submit the durandal system is obsolete unless against an undefended target.

Your quite right about the preponderance of dumb bomb usage though my guess is the majority were used against low value,lightly defended military targets,troops /trucks, using far superior targeting systems than of the past. I was misguided through the mist of the media and miliary making ass-umptions.Regards All



[Edited on 19-10-2009 by grndpndr]

The so called Blockbusters Bombs, an EOD dream Fitted with up to three fuzes and the original 4,000 pounds (1,800 kg) version, up to 12,000 pounds (5,400 kg) of Amatol.




And for the BLU-107 hate to disappoint but the warhead's main charge is just 15kg of 'ordinary' TNT

[Edited on 4-11-2013 by Melmoth]

BLU-107 was referring to the original topic..

The one you mean is Tallboy, not even the biggest, see picture Nr 8

If my memory serves, the Durandal's were in short supply during operation Desert Storm so the US Air Force made bombs out of old 75mm guns for the casings. I dont know if these were intended for landing strips like the Durandals initially were or as precursor "bunker buster bombs".

As for clearing WWI ordnance, it's been estimated that about 20-25% will be found per century with that number of course decreasing as time goes. I have friends living around Verdun who often call the EOD after making "little piles" as they say in the woods. Of course, I consider it insane, especially considering that about 1/3 of the ordnance of this conflict was chemical. But then, one of them, works looking for leaks in nuclear power plants so his notion of "risk" is different... And then... he says he'd rather do that himself that letting tourists or kids find them...

As for WW2 ordnance, well... I'm lucky enough to have several friends in Normandy aswell. I've walked on most of D-Day landing beaches and I hope I dont offend anyone, I'm certainly not trying to minimize the courage of the man that disembarked on the coasts of Normandy that day but the number of casualties was actually pretty low when you realize the amount of explosives and all kind of traps laid on the coast and the cliffs. The imagination people put into killing each other makes me shiver.
Today, you can still find 88mm pak and flak shells, 250mm shells set as booby traps, teller mines mines, stock mines, mortars and fill buckets of 20mm as close as 3km from the "touristic" beaches.
Fortunately, you cant really stumble on these by mistake while walking the beach as the tide prevents you from going to these places without planning.

But whenever I have an idiot asking me if I'm interested in chemistry to make "bombs". I show them some pictures on my phone and ask them: why bother when you could pick them up from the floor? Literally on the floor: no metal detector needed.
Some places are really scary because army engineers were just tossing the ammo they found over the cliffs in dug out holes before trying to blow up as much as they could. Which of course, most of the time buried the rest of the ammo under the collapsing cliff. With time and tide, these relics reappear every now and then. Of course, agricultors do the same thing except for the blowing up part...
One of the friends I have around there is a retired navy EOD now working HSE in a refinery (yes, a chemical engineer also). Every time he goes on a stroll he finds something new. The good thing is that there is a reward when you call the authorities to alert them about something you've found.
It pays for gasoline and we get to tag along with an expert in history
That said, you should never touch an UXO even if it looks safe, not fired or solid steel (AP). These items were made for war: to kill people and to trick them into false sense of safety.