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Thermobaric bombs contain polymer-bonded explosives or solid fuel-air explosives in their payloads. Thermobarics use a fuse munition unit (FMU) such as that seen on the nose of the Israeli artillery shell. [...]The artillery shell below, with its FMU penetrator, can also be used to deliver chemical weapons,[...]In addition, it can deliver white phosphorous,
The thermobaric bomb's magic ingredient is aluminum dust, also the secret component of another legendary weapon in the arsenal, the behemoth Daisy Cutter. Aluminum, handy foil in your kitchen drawer, is a highly dangerous explosive hazard when powdered. Duong's design duplicates conditions in a mine saturated with the flammable dust—and then strikes a match, unleashing a twisting inferno and metal-shredding concussion.
The thermobaric bomb -- 'thermo' refers to heat and 'baric' to barometric pressure -- features a two-stage explosion. The first blast occurs upon the bomb's penetration of a cave or tunnel and scatters explosive dust throughout the area where the bomb has landed. This is followed a fraction of a second later by a second, larger explosion that literally sucks oxygen out of a cave or tunnel.
'Instead of boom, this bomb goes BOOOOOOOM,' Della Vedova said.
Its powder-based explosive gives the thermobaric bomb a longer burn in confined spaces than the liquid explosive in the 5,000-pound bunker-buster bombs used during the Persian Gulf War, Della Vedova said.
New Mine Breaching System
Based on Fuel-Air Explosive (FAE)
Israel's weapon development company Rafael is producing a minefield breaching system called “Carpet”. The system is currently in use by the Israeli Army and will be fielded with the French Army by 2007. The system is a unique implementation of fuel-air explosive technology. It is an autonomous add-on kit that can be quickly fitted in the field to any armored vehicle. For minefield breaching, up to 20 rockets are fired in a rapid sequence. The number of rockets used is tailored for the type of target engaged. At the impact point, each rocket disperses a spray of fuel above the target area, to form the fuel-air explosive cloud.
Originally posted by Zaphod58
No. Thermobaric bombs are NON-FAE devices. They use some of the same components, but they are NOT FAEs.
Volumetric weapons include thermobaric and fuel-air explosives (FAE). Both thermobaric and FAE operate on similar technical principles. In the case of FAE, when a shell or projectile containing a fuel in the form of gas, liquid or dustexplodes, the fuel or dust like material is introduced into the air to form acloud. This cloud is then detonated to create a shock wave of extended duration that produces overpressure and expands in all directions. In a thermobaric weapon, the fuel consists of a monopropellant and energetic particles. The monopropellant detonates in a manner simular to TNT while the particles burn rapidly in the surrounding air later in time, resulting an intense fireball and high blast overpressure. The term "thermobaric" is derived from the effects of temperature (the Greek word "therme" means "heat") and pressure (the Greek word "baros" means "pressure") on the target.
Thermobaric munitions have been used by many nations of the world and their proliferation is an indication of how effectively these weapons can be used in urban and complex terrain. The ability of thermobaric weapons to provide massed heat and pressure effects at a single point in time cannot be reproduced by conventional weapons without massive collateral destruction. Thermobaric weapon technologies provide the commander a new choice in protecting the force, and a new offensive weapon that can be used in a mounted or dismounted mode against complex environments.
Originally posted by Zaphod58
Hey yeah, let's use the member edited site to define our weapons.
Thermobaric weapons are NOT FAE weapons.
Thermobarics aren't just a more powerful version of normal high explosive. The term encompasses a range of different types of warhead from fuel-air explosives, which release a cloud of flammable material and detonate it, to metallized explosives whose expanding fireball takes in oxygen from the air.
Russia used such "thermobaric" weapons sparingly during the 1994-1996 war in Chechnya. These were employed outside the city of Grozny against villages and mountain positions. Only the RPO-A flame thrower, which has a thermobaric round, was used in fighting in Grozny itself.
The term "thermobaric" is derived from the effects of temperature (the Greek word "therme" means "heat") and pressure (the Greek word "baros" means "pressure") on the target.
Volumetric explosives, which include fuel air explosives (FAE) and thermobarics (TBX), have the potential to be more effective than high explosives against these targets due to their greater energy density and improved target coupling (a volumetric source versus a point source). This topic calls for development of techniques to direct and/or focus blast. These directional blast warheads would be analogous to their mass-focusing counterparts--shaped charge jets (SCJ) and explosively-formed penetrators (EFP). The goals are to: (a) increase lethality by focusing more of the available energy on target; (b) decrease the collateral damage from blast (via directional blast versus omnidirectional blast); and (c) miniaturize the warhead (i.e., decrease the mass and volume) by exploiting the higher energy density of volumetric explosives and eliminating extraneous fuel mass.
AFRL is using the firing set to study novel initiation methods in volumetric explosives (the use of small amounts of electrical or mechanical energy to initiate, control, and direct the release of chemical energy from thermobarics and fuel-air explosives).
Originally posted by Zaphod58
No, I'm talking about wiki.
Note on terminology
From the open literature it appears that some experts draw a distinction between the terms thermobaric weapon and fuel-air explosive based on the primary intended effects: "thermobaric" relating to closed-zone convection or air displacement as the primary objective, and "fuel-air" for use as area-denial or "daisy cutter"–like ordnance through blast and combustion, in a role somewhat similar to that of cluster bomb weapons. Other sources use "fuel-air" as the general case, subsuming "thermobaric" as previously detailed; still others use the two terms interchangeably. The term "thermobaric" refers to heat ("thermo") and pressure ("baric").
Fine. How about SITIS for a source?
It's Defense Review's understanding that the word "thermobaric" originated in Russia during the days of the Iron Curtain. Here in the West, we referred to these same types of weapons as fuel-air explosives. The word combines the Greek words "thermo" (heat) and "baros" (pressure), which describes how a thermobaric weapon operates. First, the weapon creates an intense overpressure wave/blast and distributes a combustable agent in either aerosol or gel, then ignites it, creating a giant fireball that consumes all of the oxygen in the area, which creates a deep vacuum. The Russians also refer to thermobaric weapons as "volumetric explosives".
Originally posted by ignorant_ape
now if the(y)...claimed that the isrealis were using mine clearing rockets as APERS weapons to flatten villages and destroy feilds / crops -- then that would be a semi credible claim that might be worthy of investigation