Anti runway weapons

JP233 was retired several years ago. AFAIK it’s now a job for missiles.

Apache dispenses submunitions, but no mines AFAIK.

Lets not forget that mines are now outlawed under the Ottawa Treaty. The JP 233 area-denial element (HB 876 Sub-Munitions) were classed as mines and couldn’t be retained. Only a few nations have not signed up to the treaty.

The smart way to attack is with a missile that doesn’t expose the pilot. Any idea what missile does the job and it’s duty? As a kid I figured if you could burrow underneath the runway from the soft aprons that surround them you could do some serious uprooting. But then I figured to counter this you’d only need to lace the dirt liberally with pebbled rock. I’m not talking smaller aggregate, I’m talking pebbles like on the beach at Níce.

JP233 was retired several years ago. AFAIK it’s now a job for missiles.

Apache dispenses submunitions, but no mines AFAIK.

so is the JP233 the ultimate anti runway weapon to enter service? Its all so historic though. Does the Apache system work in a similar way?

What would the RAF do now? I mean do they still train for the mission or is it all cruise missiles?

I’m surprised they didn’t use dispersed shaped charges timed to explode after they came to a stand still. Leaving a roughed up landing pad that requires a bunch of patches is worse than leaving a single crater.

That’s very much like what they did do, but in a more sophisticated way.

JP233 dispensed 30 submunitions each of which contained two charges: a shaped charge to blow a hole which the second charge fell into, exploding to make a crater. So . . . you get up to 30 craters in your runway from a single pass.

It also dispersed 215 small mines, many of which would end up mixed in with the debris from the craters. It’s hard to see how one could sweep them all from the runway with a cable while it’s still covered with debris, & if one starts clearing the debris first, it’s full of mines which have to be dealt with as they’re discovered. Now, take into account that the JP233s were all dropped at night. Are you going to drive around with all your lights on? Floodlight the work area? Or work in the dark, surrounded by a couple of hundred small mines?

I suspect the USAF test clearances were done in daylight, & good visibility.

The debris is swept away by a front end loader, which is also used to dump pre-positioned gravel into the crater. The crater is topped off by a load of substance similar to 5 minute epoxy.

Doesnt really tell the whole story that though does it?.

Runways have to be flat and smooth. Backfilling with a coarse sub base with an epoxy/bitmac wearing course might give you a flat surface an hour after the attack. No guarantee that will still be a flat surface 24hrs later though. Gravel and that sort of sub-base settles. Bit of a shame to have your expensive fighters knocked out through hitting a pothole at 120knts isnt it?!. That sort of surface requires proper repair…not a 30 minute job lobbing in some gravel and epoxy!.

Mines could be cleared by two APCs driving beside the runway while dragging a length of steel cable between them. Any mines not detonated by the cable would be shot with gunfire or detonated at distance by spray from a fire truck.

Which sounds so simple and reasonable until the question is asked what happens if one of the APC’s or the fire truck hits one of the mines?. They are relatively well dispersed from the dispenser after all.

I’m surprised they didn’t use dispersed shaped charges timed to explode after they came to a stand still. Leaving a roughed up landing pad that requires a bunch of patches is worse than leaving a single crater.

There is actually one cruise missile dedicated to anti runways role, the french apache :

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MBDA_Apache

I would not be suprised if one uses cruisemissiles to destroy airfields… Same effect as durandal but then with multiple attacks and mixed ammo. No risk of pilots.

The USAF originally thought about getting AGM-109H for this mission and the Navy looked at the BGM-109F.Both with submunitions.Both were also cancelled.

Too bad too since I could see these being very useful in helping keep down risk to strike aircraft.

I think things changed a little. Durandal and kin was developed as an answer to the AAA/SAM threat, and in an era absent of PGMs. With PGMs it’s possible to attack individual shelters. No need any more to blanket-ruin big chunks of infrastructure that you might want/need to use later yourself.

I would not be suprised if one uses cruisemissiles to destroy airfields… Same effect as durandal but then with multiple attacks and mixed ammo. No risk of pilots.

The SG-357 cratering munitions were less than successful due to simple but effective mine clearance and runway repair techniques.

As practiced by USAF “Red Horse”:

[INDENT]Mines could be cleared by two APCs driving beside the runway while dragging a length of steel cable between them. Any mines not detonated by the cable would be shot with gunfire or detonated at distance by spray from a fire truck.

The debris is swept away by a front end loader, which is also used to dump pre-positioned gravel into the crater. The crater is topped off by a load of substance similar to 5 minute epoxy.

Using the above techniques, a JP233’d runway is only out of action for 30 minutes.[/INDENT]

A more effective way to block a runway (or taxiway) is to use a penetrating munition to heave huge chunks of concrete (that weigh many tons each). This forces the personnel who repair runways to use demolition charges to break the big concrete chunks into smaller chunks for removal. This lengthens the time to repair to several hours.

putting big bombs on the runway will help, one plane can still do enough to keep a runway from being operational.