March 4, 2002. Copyright 2002. Graphic News. All rights reserved.

Pentagon develops new bomb

LONDON, March 4, Graphic News: The U.S. military has begun using a new bomb in Afghanistan designed to send a suffocating blast through a cave complex without sealing the entrance with debris. 

Military researchers rushed the new ÒthermobaricÓ bomb to completion after the September 11 terrorist attacks and it was successfully tested in Nevada on December 14, said Air Force spokesman Captain Joe Della Vedova.

The bomb, designated Bomb Live Unit (BLU)-118B, uses an advanced thermobaric explosive which creates a cloud of explosive particles that blow up with a force stronger and longer-lasting than one created by conventional explosives.

Thermobaric weapons -- the term is derived from the Greek word Òtherme,Ó meaning ÒheatÓ and ÒbarosÓ meaning ÒpressureÓ -- work on the same principle that causes blasts in grain elevators and other dusty places; clouds of fine particles are highly explosive. Such explosions produce shock waves that can be directed and amplified in enclosed spaces such as buildings, caves or tunnels.

While the shock wave is powerful, and the explosionÕs heat is intense, it does not collapse a cave or tunnel, but rather reverberates throughout the entire complex, sucking out the air and suffocating anyone within range.

ÒThe big advantage of it is it would enable you to destroy what is in the tunnel without collapsing the tunnel mouth,Ó said military analyst John Pike of GlobalSecurity.org. ÒIn other words, you could kill people in tunnels and also be able to figure out who youÕve killed.Ó

That could prove to be a big advantage in the fight against the Taliban and al-Qaeda, since military officials are eager to determine which leaders of the Islamic militia and terrorist network have been killed by U.S. airstrikes. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said last week that Osama bin Laden could be buried in the rubble of a bombed tunnel, for example.

One version of the BLU-118B uses an explosive called PBXIH-135, which is one of the NavyÕs new ÒinsensitiveÓ polymer bonded explosives. Insensitive high explosives require extraordinarily high stimuli before violent reaction occurs and detonation reactions are slower than conventional high explosives. But when detonated correctly more energy is released in a way that has the potential to produce a lot more damage. 

The U.S. Air Force will field 10 of these new warheads, delivered by U.S. Air Force F-15E Strike Eagle aircraft in the Afghan threatre.
/ENDS

Sources: U.S. Defense Threat Reduction Agency, GlobalSecurity.org