British Develop New Weapon Based On Thermobaric Principle

The article quoted below makes these new weapons sound pretty handy on a battlefield. It also talks about how devastating these types of weapons are.

British defense officials told the UK Guardian that British bombs were "different."

"They are optimized to create blast [rather than heat]", one said, speaking on the standard condition of anonymity in Britain. The official added that it would be misleading to call them "thermobaric."

Officials told the Guardian the new weapon was classified as a soldier launched "light anti-structure munition" and that the bombs would be more effective because "even when they hit the damage is limited to a confined area."

source
edit for sorce link

[edit on 28-8-2007 by RedGolem]

Do you have the source of the article Red?

thermobaric weapons have already been developed and have been deployed to US forces operating in the Middle East so I would have to guess we have access to these weapons as well.

I stand to be corrected but in essence these are weapons that use the oxygen in the air to fuel the chemical reaction rather than carrying on board an oxidizer

reply to post by Freedom ERP


Woops, a thousand pardons I forgot to post the source link.
here it is

iirc the russians were the first to get thermobaric weapons on a large scale.

Thermobaric weapons have been around for decades now. An early thermobaric weapon is a Fuel air explosive.

Right now Thermobarics are being used to clear out deep caves and possible insurgent hiding places.

The Russians have been using thermobaric weapons as far back as Afghanistan.

Shattered OUT...

[edit on 28-8-2007 by ShatteredSkies]

These things seem to me to be an evolution of the BLU-82 daisy cutter is that right?

Fuel released and then ignited - nasty but simple in principle, in the UK at the moment is a story about a 4 floor factory totally destroyed by a propane leak where the gas seeped through the soil into a basement, apparently it only has to be a 3-4% propane air mixture (or above) to have a decent explosion have a look here for the BBC report

This thing must be hell. A simple principle refined, Jeese I hope they don't use this in the wrong place (although if they did would you get to hear about it?)

What's with the wang measuring in this thread?

"we did it first".. So what?

You don't here me telling you all that your Jet's are crap because Frank whittle invented the jet engine, do you? Seriously....

As for the topic, it's clear that some haven't read it as they've been to busy playing with their wangs.

The weapon isn't strictly thermobaric, as it is optimised for blast as opposed to heat. So I suppose it would be technically correct to call it fysobaric (fyso being Greek for blast... Just making it up so not sure if that would be the technical term )

EDIT: Comparing it to the daisycutter is inaccurate. This is a man portable weapon, not the 10,000lb monster dropped from the back of a C-130.

[edit on 28/8/07 by stumason]

The Daisy Cutter has been mistaken for a thermobaric before, it is not. It is a conventional weapon.

Thermobaric weapons aren't just man-portable either. The Russians used Man-portable FAE weapons back in Afghanistan and the Americans have made large FAE bombs such as the 2,000 lb BLU-96.

And I don't think this is a wang competition...

Shattered OUT...

reply to post by stumason


That's why I said an evolution of it. I was talking about the basic principle - fuel air, I could also compare it to coal mine explosions of flour store explosions. The man portable bit is the evolution.

Edit: Wiki on Wang!!


P.s. stumason, you do realise I'm a fellow country man don't you? I hail from Plymouth

[edit on 28/8/2007 by Now_Then]

Originally posted by Now_Then
That's why I said an evolution of it. I was talking about the basic principle - fuel air, I could also compare it to coal mine explosions of flour store explosions. The man portable bit is the evolution.

Fair enough

Originally posted by Now_Then
Edit: Wiki on Wang!!

Originally posted by Now_Then
P.s. stumason, you do realise I'm a fellow country man don't you? I hail from Plymouth

I do now, but then, you weren't one with the wang hanging out saying "we did it first"...