Boeing to test carbon-fiber bomb
If you can make golf clubs and airplanes from carbon fiber, why not make a bomb from it?The Air Force is paying Boeing Co. $27 million to create a carbon-fiber version of the Small Diameter Bomb. At 250 pounds, the original Small Diameter Bomb is the smallest guided bomb carried by Air Force warplanes. But its metal casing turns into shrapnel when it explodes. carbon-fiber bomb would reduce shrapnel, officials say. And less shrapnel would mean fewer wounded bystanders and less damage to nearby buildings — less collateral damage in military terms.
The official name for the bomb is “Focused Lethality Munitions.”
The Air Force Research Laboratory and the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory developed the technology for the carbon-fiber bomb. Boeing will build a test version of the bomb and then perform ground and flight tests.
Flight testing is expected to begin next summer. Operational assessment is set for 2008.
The Small Diameter Bomb uses a Global Positioning System receiver to guide the bomb after it is released from a plane. The Small Diameter Bomb was approved for combat use earlier this year and is now flying on F-15E Strike Eagles over Iraq.
http://www.airforcetimes.com/story.php?f=1-292925-2366439.php
By: mabie - 25th November 2006 at 04:43
Tom Clancy had something similar in one of his novels.. a laser-guided bomb housed in a cellulose casing, just a lot of blast damage but no fragmentation. Never could find out if such a weapon ever really existed.
By: totoro - 22nd November 2006 at 11:27
Sure, they could ram, but there’s just not enough space on that small bomb to use it in effective way. To work properly against specific wavelengths of SAM radar, it needs a certain thickness to it. While there’s still enough space to use RAM against some very small wavelengths, i fear that would lower available internal space to perhaps just two dozen pounds of explosive. Also, depending on strength of the material, maybe wing are other thin parts simply could not be made out of RAM. Lots of IFs in that business.
By: mobryan - 22nd November 2006 at 06:59
But that brings up another question. Is there a good RAM composite to make the shells from, for precision soft targets like a SAM site?
Matt
By: totoro - 21st November 2006 at 22:11
That is a cool thing. I shall just use this opportunity to preempt any possible claims of ‘oh, maybe it will be stealthier too!’ with a ‘go check electrical conductivity levels of carbon fibre’. Composite materials can help with radar stealth but carbon fibre is not the best way to go about it. Cheers 🙂
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November 21, 2006 at 11:59 am