bomb rating. The most powerful non-nuclear munitions in history. The Russian Constitution did not notice the “bomb Submunitions of bomb clusters

The arsenal in the Ichni region was blown up by saboteurs. This was announced on Wednesday, October 10, by Defense Minister Stepan Poltorak at a government meeting.

"What happened? In our opinion, the fact that the explosions took place in such a way that first there was a bang, then a glow, after that two pops and explosions of ammunition, indicates that the laying of ammunition to undermine our storage facilities is likely. Why didn't we manage to save it? Not enough there was perimeter equipment. The second position: we can securely store our stocks only when we build reliable reinforced concrete structures," he said.

Poltorak stressed that the explosions of ammunition began in different places.

"Almost all respondents personnel reported that the first explosions were at 3:20. They were simultaneous at three storages at once. After that, at 3:45 a.m., six more explosions occurred at different storage facilities, and this happened along the entire perimeter - in different corners and in the center," the minister said.

The Minister of Defense stressed that the security measures at the arsenal were observed at a sufficient level.

"A full-time category battalion has been allocated at this arsenal, a company has been staffed to provide protection, a cynological service has been introduced, funds have been placed electronic warfare to suppress drones and work was carried out to equip weapons storage areas. At the time of the explosion, there were two people at each post: one serviceman of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and one representative of the paramilitary guards. In addition, there was the chief of the guard, the assistant chief and a reserve of 10 people. Along the perimeter, at a distance of up to 3 km, there were 12 people in different types clothes," he said.

Recall, Minister Poltorak also said that at the time of the emergency, although it is designed for 127 thousand tons. But for last years almost half of the reserves were relocated to other arsenals.

"Its area is 680 hectares. The security perimeter is 8 km 200 meters. It has 112 storage facilities, 40% of which are open areas," he said.

Vacuum bomb is a non-systemic name for volumetric explosion ammunition. In itself, such a physical phenomenon as a volumetric explosion has long been known. In the 19th century during the industrial revolution in Europe, strange explosions began to spontaneously occur not only in gunpowder, but even in flour mills, sugar and rope factories. Of course, they suspected the intrigues of enemies. But as physicists soon proved, foreign saboteurs had nothing to do with it. The reason for a volumetric explosion is that, at a certain concentration, a mixture of air with almost any solid and at least some combustible substance can theoretically detonate. Even powdered sugar, coal or wood dust can explode. Why is there dust from sawdust - a small volumetric explosion occurs in the cylinder of any car at each cycle. It's all about scale.

"Striking Ten"

1. AVBPM (Russia). Vacuum bomb, TNT equivalent - 44 tons. With an explosion at a distance of 100 m, there is a complete destruction of fortifications of any power, including underground bunkers. At a distance of 170-200 m, reinforced concrete fortifications like pillboxes completely collapse. At a distance of 450 - 500 m, any residential buildings crumble. It was not used in combat, but has already received the unofficial title of the father of all bombs.

2. GBU-43/B, aka MOAB - Massive Ordnance Air Blast, better known as the "Mother of all bombs" (USA). TNT equivalent - 11 tons. High-explosive aerial bomb, created in 2002 and equipped with a satellite guidance system. In 2017, it was used against tunnels " Islamic State”(banned on the territory of Russia) in Afghanistan, 14 MOAB units remain in service.

3. BLU-82/B (USA). High-explosive bomb with TNT equivalent of 10 tons. was developed during Vietnam War for clearing helipads in the jungle. Used in Operation Desert Storm and in Afghanistan. Due to their large dimensions, the bombers were not bombers, but transport aircraft C-130.

4. T-12 Cloudmaker - the heaviest in history (TNT equivalent of 7.5 tons) anti-bunker bomb, developed for the US Air Force in the late 1940s. Due to its huge dimensions, it could only be used by B-36 Peacemaker strategic bombers. After their decommissioning in 1959, it was also withdrawn from service. It has never been used in combat.

5. Grand Slam - high-explosive seismic bomb (Great Britain) TNT equivalent of 6.5 tons. After dropping from a height of 8 km to the ground to a depth of 40 m. As a result of an underground explosion, a seismic wave arose, causing damage to structures on the surface of the earth. Limited use during World War II.

6. FAB-9000 (USSR). Adopted in 1950. Designed to destroy large fortifications. TNT equivalent 4.3 tons. In 1954, it was modernized and, in the FAB-9000M-54 version, was used in Afghan war. To date, there are no FAB-9000 carriers in the Russian Aerospace Forces.

7. Blockbuster Mk V - high-explosive bomb (UK, 1943) TNT equivalent up to 4 tons. It was widely used to bombard German cities - hence the name - blowing up the quarter.

8. "Jumping bomb" (Great Britain) - a special bomb designed to destroy dams on the rivers of Germany. TNT equivalent 2.5 tons. Used only once in May 1943. Destroyed and damaged several hydraulic structures, causing flooding of territories and a decrease in the production of electricity and agricultural products.

9. Tallboy (Great Britain) TNT equivalent 2.3 tons. designed to destroy underground structures. It was used at the end of World War II to destroy the industrial and military facilities of Nazi Germany, which were impossible to hit with conventional bombs. These bombs sank the battleship Tirpitz and heavy cruiser"Admiral Scheer".

10. FAB-5000 (USSR) - Soviet air bomb, put into service in 1943. TNT equivalent of 2.2 tons. Used by the Red Army Air Force during the Great Patriotic War against the fortifications of Koenigsberg, on the Kursk Bulge, 2 bombs were dropped on Helsinki. According to some reports, in the 80s it was used against the fortified positions of the Mujahideen during the Afghan war.

Atomic weapons are the most terrible and majestic invention of mankind. The power of a destructive nuclear wave is so great that it can wipe out not only all living things, but even the most reliable structures and buildings. Russia's nuclear stockpiles alone are enough to completely destroy our planet. And no wonder, since the country has the richest stockpile of atomic weapons, after the United States. The Soviet "Kuzkina mother" or "Tsar bomb", tested in 1961, became the most powerful atomic weapons of all time.

The TOP 10 included most powerful nuclear bombs in the world. Many of them were used for testing purposes, but brought irreparable harm to the environment. Others have become weapons in the settlement of military conflicts.

10. Little boy | Power 18 kilotons

little boy("Kid") - the first nuclear bomb that was not used for testing purposes. It was she who contributed to the end of the war between Japan and the United States. Little boy with a capacity of 18 kilotons caused the death of 140,000 residents of Hiroshima. A device 3 meters long and 70 cm in diameter created a nuclear pillar over 6 kilometers high. "Kid" and "following" him "Fat Man" brought considerable damage to two Japanese cities, which to this day remain uninhabited.

9 Fat Man | Power 21 kilotons

fat man(Fat Man) - the second nuclear bomb that the United States used against Japan. victims nuclear weapons became the inhabitants of the city of Nagasaki. An explosion with a capacity of 21 kilotons claimed the lives of 80 thousand people at once, and another 35 thousand died from radiation. Exactly this powerful weapon for the entire existence of mankind, which was used for military purposes.

8. Trinity | Power 21 kilotons

(Thing) - the first bomb that marked the beginning of nuclear weapons testing. The wave of the shock explosion was 21 kilotons and rose as a cloud up to 11 kilometers. The first in human history nuclear explosion made a stunning impression on scientists. White clouds of smoke with a diameter of almost two kilometers rapidly rose up and formed the shape of a mushroom.

7. Baker | Power 21 kilotons

Baker(Baker) - one of the three atomic bombs that participated in Operation Crossroads ("Crossroads") in 1946. The tests were carried out to determine the effect of atomic shells on sea vessels and experimental animals. At a depth of 27 meters, an explosion with a capacity of 23 kilotons was made, which displaced about two million tons of water to the surface and formed a column of more than half a kilometer in height. Baker carried with it "the world's first nuclear disaster". The radioactive island of Bikini, where the tests were carried out, became uninhabitable and was considered uninhabited until 2010.

6. Rhea | Power 955 kilotons

"- the most powerful atomic bomb tested by France in 1971. A projectile with a yield of 955 kilotons of TNT was blown up on the Mururoa atoll, which is a nuclear test site. More than 200 nuclear weapons were tested there until 1998.

5. Castle Romeo | Capacity 11 megatons

- one of the most powerful explosions made in the USA. The operation was accepted for execution on March 27, 1954. The explosion was carried out on a barge in open ocean, as they were afraid that the bomb could destroy the nearby island. The power of the explosion was 11 megatons, instead of the expected 4 megatons. This is explained by the fact that cheap material was used as thermonuclear fuel.

4. Device Mike | Power 12 megatons

Mike device(Evie Mike) was initially of no value and was used as an experimental bomb. The height of the nuclear cloud was estimated at 37 km, and the diameter of the cloud cap was about 161 km. The strength of the nuclear wave "Mike" was estimated at 12 megatons of TNT. The power of the projectile was enough to wipe out the small islands of Elugelab, where the test was carried out. In their place, only a funnel with a diameter of 2 kilometers and a depth of 50 meters remained. Radioactively contaminated fragments from the reefs scattered 50 km from the epicenter of the explosion.

3. Castle Yankee | Capacity 13.5 megatons

- the second most powerful nuclear explosion produced by American testers. It was expected that the initial capacity of the device will be no more than 10 megatons of TNT. As it turned out, the nuclear explosion had a large force and was estimated at 13.5 megatons. The height of the stem of the nuclear fungus was 40 km, and the hat was 16 km. The radiation cloud reached Mexico City in four days, which is located 11,000 km from the site of the operation.

2 Castle Bravo | Capacity 15 megatons

Castle Bravo(Shrimp TX-21) is the most powerful atomic bomb ever tested in the US. The operation was carried out in March 1954 and suffered irreversible consequences. An explosion with a capacity of 15 megatons caused severe radiation contamination. Hundreds of people living in the Marshall Islands received radiation exposure. The stem of the nuclear mushroom exceeded 40 km, and the diameter of the cap was estimated at 100 km. The explosion caused the formation of seabed a huge funnel, 2 km in diameter. The consequences of the tests led to the limitation of operations carried out with nuclear projectiles.

1. Tsar bomb | Capacity 58 megatons

(AN602) - the most powerful Soviet nuclear bomb in the world of all time. An eight-meter projectile with a diameter of two meters was used as a test in 1961 in the archipelago New Earth. It was originally planned that the AN602 would have a capacity of 100 megatons, but being afraid of the global destructive power of weapons, they agreed that the explosion force would not exceed 58 megatons. At an altitude of 4 km, the Tsar Bomba was activated and gave stunning results. The diameter of the fiery cloud reached about 10 km. The nuclear pillar was about 67 km in height, and the diameter of the column's cap reached 97 km. Even being at a distance of 400 km from the epicenter of the explosion was extremely life-threatening. Powerful sound wave spread over a thousand kilometers. On the island where the test took place, there were no traces of life and no buildings, absolutely everything was level with the surface of the earth. The seismic wave of the explosion circled the entire planet three times, and every inhabitant of the planet could feel the full power of nuclear weapons. After this test, more than a hundred countries signed an agreement to stop this type of operation both in the atmosphere and under water and on land.

Air bombs or aerial bombs are one of the main types of aviation munitions, which appeared almost immediately after the birth of military aviation. An aerial bomb is dropped from an aircraft or other aircraft and reaches the target under the influence of gravity.

Currently, aerial bombs have become one of the main means of defeating the enemy; in any armed conflict of recent decades (in which aviation was used, of course), their consumption amounted to tens of thousands of tons.

Modern aerial bombs are used to destroy enemy personnel, armored vehicles, warships, enemy fortifications (including underground bunkers), civilian and military infrastructure. Main damaging factors air bombs is a blast wave, fragments, heat. Exist special types bombs that contain various types of toxic substances to destroy enemy manpower.

Since the advent of combat aviation, a huge number of types have been developed. aircraft bombs, some of which are still used today (for example, high-explosive aerial bombs), while others have long been decommissioned and have become part of history (rotative-scattering aerial bomb). Most types of modern aerial bombs were invented before or during World War II. However, the current aerial bombs are still different from their predecessors - they have become much "smarter" and more deadly.

Guided aerial bombs (UABs) are one of the most common types of modern high-precision weapons; they combine a significant power of the warhead (WB) and high precision hitting a target. In general, it should be noted that the use of high-precision weapons is one of the main directions of development strike aviation, the era of carpet bombing is gradually fading into the past.

If you ask an ordinary layman what kind of air bombs are, then he is unlikely to be able to name more than two or three varieties. In fact, the arsenal of modern bomber aircraft is huge, it includes several dozen various kinds ammunition. They differ not only in caliber, the nature of the damaging effect, the weight of the explosive and the purpose. The classification of aerial bombs is quite complex and is based on several principles at once, and in different countries ah it has some differences.

However, before turning to descriptions of specific types of aerial bombs, a few words should be said about the history of the development of this ammunition.

Story

The idea to use aircraft in military affairs was born almost immediately after their appearance. At the same time, the easiest and most logical way to harm the adversary from the air was to drop something deadly on his head. The first attempts to use airplanes as bombers were made even before the outbreak of the First World War - in 1911, during the Italo-Turkish war, the Italians dropped several bombs on Turkish troops.

During the First World War, in addition to bombs, metal darts (flashets) were also used to destroy ground targets, which were more or less effective against enemy manpower.

Often used as the first aerial bombs hand grenades, which the pilot simply threw from his cockpit. It is clear that the accuracy and efficiency of such bombing left much to be desired. And the planes themselves initial period During the First World War, they were not very suitable for the role of bombers; airships capable of taking on board several tons of bombs and covering a distance of 2-4 thousand km had much more efficiency.

The first full-fledged WWI bomber was the Russian Ilya Muromets aircraft. Soon, such multi-engine bombers appeared in service with all participants in the conflict. In parallel, work was underway to improve their main means of defeating the enemy - aerial bombs. The designers had several tasks, the main of which was the ammunition fuse - it was necessary to ensure that it worked at the right time. The stability of the first bombs was insufficient - they fell sideways to the ground. The first aerial bombs were often made from shells artillery shells different calibers, but their shape was not very suitable for accurate bombing, and they were very expensive.

After creating the first heavy bombers the military needed ammunition of serious calibers that could cause really serious damage to the enemy. Already by the middle of 1915 in service Russian army bombs of 240 and even 400 kg caliber appeared.

At the same time, the first samples of incendiary bombs based on white phosphorus. Russian chemists have managed to develop a cheap way to obtain this scarce substance.

In 1915, the Germans began to use the first fragmentation bombs, a little later, similar ammunition appeared in service with other countries participating in the conflict. The Russian inventor Dashkevich came up with a "barometric" bomb, the fuse of which worked at a certain height, scattering a large amount of shrapnel over a certain area.

Summarizing the above, we can come to an unambiguous conclusion: in just a few years of the First World War, aviation bombs and bombers went an unthinkable path - from metal arrows to half-ton bombs, quite modern form with an effective fuse and an in-flight stabilization system.

Between World Wars bomber aircraft developed rapidly, the range and carrying capacity of aircraft became greater, and the design of aviation ammunition was also improved. At this time, new types of aerial bombs were developed.

Some of them should be considered in more detail. In 1939 it began Soviet-Finnish war and almost immediately the aviation of the USSR began massive bombing of Finnish cities. Among other ammunition, the so-called rotary-dispersive bombs (RRAB) were used. It can be safely called the prototype of future cluster bombs.

The rotary dispersal bomb was a thin-walled container containing a large number of small bombs: high-explosive, fragmentation or incendiary. Due to the special design of the plumage, the rotary-dispersive aerial bomb rotated in flight and scattered submunitions over a large area. Since the USSR assured that Soviet aircraft do not bomb the cities of Finland, but drop food to the starving, the Finns wittily called the rotary-scattering bombs "Molotov's breadbaskets."

During Polish campaign the Germans for the first time used real cluster bombs, which in their design practically do not differ from modern ones. They were thin-walled ammunition that exploded at the required height and released a large number of small bombs.

second world war can safely be called the first military conflict in which combat aviation played a decisive role. German attack aircraft Ju 87 "thing" has become a symbol of the new military concept- blitzkrieg, and American and British bombers successfully implemented the Douai doctrine, erasing German cities and their inhabitants into rubble.

At the end of the war, the Germans developed and successfully used for the first time the new kind aviation ammunition - guided aerial bombs. With their help, for example, the flagship of the Italian fleet, the newest battleship Roma, was sunk.

Of the new types of aerial bombs that were first used during the Second World War, anti-tank, as well as jet (or rocket) aerial bombs, should be noted. Anti-tank bombs are a special type of aviation ammunition designed to deal with enemy armored vehicles. They usually had a small caliber and cumulative warhead. Their example is the Soviet PTAB bombs, which were actively used by the Red Army aviation against German tanks.

Rocket air bombs are a type of aviation ammunition equipped with a rocket engine, which gave it additional acceleration. The principle of their work was simple: the "penetrating" ability of the bomb depends on its mass and the height of the discharge. In the USSR, before the war, it was considered that in order to guarantee the destruction of a battleship, it was necessary to drop a two-ton bomb from a height of four kilometers. However, if you install a simple rocket booster on the ammunition, then both parameters can be reduced several times. It was not possible to make such ammunition then, but rocket method acceleration has found application in modern concrete-piercing aerial bombs.

On August 6, 1945, a new era in the development of mankind began: it got acquainted with a new destructive weapon- a nuclear bomb. This type of aviation ammunition is still in service with different countries of the world, although the importance of nuclear bombs has significantly decreased.

Combat aviation has been continuously developing during the period cold war, along with it, aerial bombs were also improved. However, something fundamentally new was not invented during this period. Guided aerial bombs, cluster munitions were improved, bombs with a volumetric detonating warhead (vacuum bombs) appeared.

Since about the mid-70s, bombs have become more and more precision weapons. If during the Vietnamese campaign, UAB accounted for only 1% of total bombs dropped by American aircraft on the enemy, then during Operation Desert Storm (1990), this figure increased to 8%, and during the bombing of Yugoslavia - up to 24%. In 2003, 70% of American bombs in Iraq were precision-guided weapons.

The improvement of aviation ammunition continues today.

Air bombs, features of their design and classification

An aerial bomb is a type of munition that consists of a body, stabilizer, munitions, and one or more fuses. Most often, the body has an oval-cylindrical shape with a conical tail. The cases of fragmentation, high-explosive and high-explosive fragmentation bombs (OFAB) are made in such a way as to give the maximum number of fragments during an explosion. In the bottom and bow parts of the hull there are usually special glasses for installing fuses, some types of bombs also have side fuses.

The explosives used in aerial bombs are quite varied. Most often it is TNT or its alloys with hexogen, ammonium nitrate, etc. In incendiary ammunition, the warhead is filled with incendiary compositions or combustible liquids.

There are special ears for suspension on the body of air bombs, with the exception of small-caliber ammunition, which are placed in cassettes or bundles.

The stabilizer is designed to ensure stable flight of the ammunition, reliable operation of the fuse and more effective target destruction. The stabilizers of modern air bombs can have a complex design: box-shaped, feathery or cylindrical. Air bombs that are used from low altitudes often have umbrella stabilizers that deploy immediately after being dropped. Their task is to slow down the flight of the ammunition in order to enable the aircraft to move to a safe distance from the point of explosion.

Modern aviation bombs are equipped with different types of fuses: percussion, non-contact, remote, etc.

If we talk about the classifications of air bombs, then there are several of them. All bombs are divided into:

• basic;
• auxiliary.

The main aerial bombs are designed to directly hit various targets.

Auxiliary ones contribute to the solution of a particular combat mission, or they are used in the training of troops. These include lighting, smoke, propaganda, signal, orienteering, training and simulation.

The main aerial bombs can be divided according to the type of damaging effect they inflict:

1. Ordinary. These include ammunition filled with conventional explosives or incendiary substances. The defeat of targets occurs due to the blast wave, fragments, high temperature.
2. Chemical. This category of aerial bombs includes ammunition filled with chemical poisonous substances. Chemical bombs have never been used on a large scale.
3. Bacteriological. They are stuffed with biological pathogens of various diseases or their carriers and have also never been used on a large scale.
4. Nuclear. They have a nuclear or thermonuclear warhead, the defeat occurs due to the shock wave, light radiation, radiation, electromagnetic wave.

There is a classification of aerial bombs, based on a narrower definition of lethality, which is the most commonly used. According to her, bombs are:

• high-explosive;
• high-explosive fragmentation;
• fragmentation;
• high-explosive penetrating (have a thick body);
• concrete-breaking;
• armor-piercing;
• incendiary;
• high-explosive incendiary;
• poisonous;
• volumetric detonating;
• fragmentation-poisonous.

This list goes on.

The main characteristics of air bombs include: caliber, performance indicators, filling ratio, characteristic time and range of conditions combat use.

One of the main characteristics of any air bomb is its caliber. This is the mass of ammunition in kilograms. Rather conditionally, bombs are divided into small, medium and large caliber. To which particular group this or that aerial bomb belongs largely depends on its type. So, for example, a hundred-kilogram high-explosive bomb belongs to a small caliber, and its fragmentation or incendiary counterpart to a medium one.

The fill factor is the ratio of the explosive mass of a bomb to its total weight. For thin-walled high-explosive ammunition, it is higher (about 0.7), and for thick-walled - fragmentation and concrete-piercing bombs - lower (about 0.1-0.2).

The characteristic time is a parameter that is related to the ballistic properties of the bomb. This is the time of its fall when dropped from an aircraft flying horizontally at a speed of 40 m / s, from a height of 2 thousand meters.

The expected effectiveness is also a rather conditional parameter of aerial bombs. It is different for different types these ammunition. The assessment may be related to the size of the crater, the number of fires, the thickness of the pierced armor, the area of ​​the affected area, etc.

The range of conditions for combat use shows the characteristics at which bombing is possible: maximum and minimum speed, altitude.

Types of bombs

The most commonly used aerial bombs are high explosive. Even a small 50 kg bomb contains more explosive than a 210 mm gun projectile. The reason is very simple - the bomb does not need to withstand the huge loads that the projectile is subjected to in the gun barrel, so it can be made thin-walled. The body of the projectile requires precise and complex processing, which is absolutely not necessary for an aerial bomb. Accordingly, the cost of the latter is much lower.

It should be noted that the use of high-explosive bombs of very large calibers (above 1,000 kg) is not always rational. With an increase in the mass of the explosive, the radius of destruction does not increase too significantly. Therefore, over a large area, it is much more efficient to use several medium-power ammunition.

Another common type of aerial bombs are fragmentation bombs. The main purpose of defeating such bombs is the manpower of the enemy or the civilian population. These ammunition are designed to promote the formation a large number fragments after the explosion. They usually have a notch on inside housings or ready-made submunitions (most often balls or needles) placed inside the housing. In the explosion of a hundred-kilogram fragmentation bomb, 5-6 thousand small fragments are obtained.

As a rule, fragmentation bombs have a smaller caliber than high-explosive ones. A significant disadvantage of this type of ammunition is the fact that it is easy to hide from a fragmentation bomb. Any field fortification (trench, cell) or building is suitable for this. Currently, fragmentation cluster munitions are more common, which are a container filled with small fragmentation submunitions.

Such bombs cause significant casualties, with civilians suffering the most from their action. So similar weapons prohibited by many conventions.

Concrete bombs. This is a very interesting type of ammunition, the so-called seismic bombs, developed by the British at the beginning of World War II, are considered its predecessor. The idea was this: to make a very large bomb (5.4 tons - Tallboy and 10 tons - Grand Slam), raise it higher - eight kilometers - and drop it on the adversary's head. The bomb, having accelerated to tremendous speed, penetrates deep underground and explodes there. As a result, a small earthquake occurs, which destroys buildings over a large area.

Nothing came of this venture. The underground explosion, of course, shook the ground, but obviously not enough for the collapse of buildings. But he destroyed underground structures very effectively. Therefore, already at the end of the war, British aviation used such bombs specifically to destroy bunkers.

Today, concrete-piercing bombs are often equipped with a rocket booster so that the ammunition gains great speed and penetrated deeper into the earth.

vacuum bombs. This aviation ammunition became one of the few post-war inventions, although the Germans were still interested in volumetric explosion ammunition at the end of World War II. The Americans began to use them en masse during the Vietnamese campaign.

The principle of operation of aviation ammunition of a volumetric explosion is more correct name- pretty simple. The warhead of the bomb contains a substance that, when detonated, is blown up by a special charge and turns into an aerosol, after which the second charge sets fire to it. Such an explosion is several times more powerful than usual, and here's why: ordinary TNT (or other explosive) contains and explosive, and an oxidizing agent, a "vacuum" bomb uses oxygen from the air to oxidize (combust).

True, an explosion of this type is of the “burning” type, but in its action it is in many ways superior to conventional ammunition.

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