How did the submunition on the British BL.755 cluster bomb compare to the BLU-97/B used in the CBU-97/B, the M77 and M85 on the MLRS and the M74 on the ATACMS.
According to ‘British Secret Projects: Hypersonics, Ramjets and Missiles’
‘Back in 1966 Hawker Siddeley Dynamics had proposed the Cluster Martel. This mated the AJ.168 TV Martel airframe with many of the components of Hunting’s BL.755. To allow ejection of the bomblets at the appropriate altitude, the radar fuse from the WE.177 nuclear bomb was to be used. However, the Air Staff considered this a complete waste of time and effort for what was basically a powered cluster bomb and so BL.755 entered service as a free fall bomb’
The Skomer website lists a range of 37.3 miles for the Cluster Martel.
If this had been proceeded with, any guestimates as to how accurate that could have been given no GPS although if you are using the TV versions airframe presumably you have the potential be quite accurate as long as the weather is not too bad?
Would there have been anything to stop the B.755 submunitions being carried by a suitable SSM to make an early MLRS/TACMS?
By: alertken - 14th April 2009 at 09:46
djc: that is curmudgeonly. The GW1 coalition, guests of KSA and the Emirate States, was there to eject Kuwait’s invader. Once he was high-tailing off down the Basra Rd. we had no consensus to pursue him. If we had shot-up the sitting ducks, say from US/RN floating bases, we would have created hearts-and-minds support for the underdog. So we relied on locals, and sanctions, to topple him.
By: djcross - 14th April 2009 at 02:53
BLU-97/B is also used on JSOW and was used on TLAM-D.
I sweated many days working to improve fuse reliability on BLU-97/B. Had lots of fun disassembling dud fuses with live detonators in them. That was 24 years ago. 😀 A few simple changes improved reliability from 92% to 98.5%. They seemed to work well on the “Highway of Death” when the Iraqis pulled out of Kuwait City. Many Iraqis never made it to the border due to BLU-97/Bs. King George I finally told USAF to stop and let the Iraqis go. The Arab world hailed Saddam as the victor of Desert Storm due to King George’s weakness.
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April 14, 2009 at 12:09 am