The most powerful bomb in the world. Which bomb is stronger: vacuum or thermonuclear? Weapons of the 20th century - aviation bombs. The difference between the American vacuum bomb and the Russian one.

Etymology of the concept

The Russian word “bomb” comes from the Greek. βόμβος (bombos), onomatopoeia, an onomatopoeic word that had in Greek approximately the same meaning as the word “babakh” in Russian. In the European group of languages, the term has the same root “bomb” (German. bombe, English bomb, fr. bombe, Spanish bomba), the source of which, in turn, is Lat. bombus, the Latin analogue of the Greek onomatopoeia.

According to one hypothesis, the term was originally associated with battering guns, which first made a terrible roar, and only then caused destruction. In the future, with the improvement of warfare technologies, the logical chain war-roar-of-destruction became associated with other types of weapons. The term experienced a rebirth at the end of the 14th and beginning of the 15th centuries, when gunpowder entered the arena of war. At that time, the technical effect of its use was negligible (especially in comparison with mechanical types that had reached perfection throwing weapons), however, the roar it produced was an extraordinary phenomenon and often had an effect on the enemy comparable to a shower of arrows.

Story

1. Artillery grenade. 2. Bomb. 3. Buckshot grenade. XVII-XIX centuries

1. by purpose - for combat and non-combat. The latter include smoke, lighting, photo aircraft bombs (lighting for night photography), daytime (colored smoke) and night (colored fire) orientation-signal, orientation-sea (create a colored fluorescent spot on the water and colored fire; in the West, orientation-signal and orientation-naval bombs have common name marker), propaganda (stuffed with propaganda material), practical (for training bombing - do not contain explosives or contain a very small charge; practical bombs that do not contain a charge are most often made of cement) and imitation (simulate a nuclear bomb);

1. by type of active material - conventional, nuclear, chemical, toxin, bacteriological (traditionally, bombs loaded with pathogenic viruses or their carriers also belong to the category of bacteriological, although strictly speaking a virus is not a bacterium);
2. according to the nature of the damaging effect:
   • fragmentation (damaging effect mainly from fragments);
   • high-explosive fragmentation (fragmentation, high-explosive and high-explosive action; in the West such ammunition is called bombs general purpose);
   • high-explosive (high-explosive and blasting action);
   • penetrating high-explosive - they are also high-explosive thick-walled, they are also (Western designation) “seismic bombs” (with high explosive action);
   • concrete-piercing (in the West such ammunition is called semi-armor-piercing) inert (does not contain an explosive charge, hitting the target only due to kinetic energy);
   • concrete-breaking explosives (kinetic energy and blasting action);
   • armor-piercing explosive (also kinetic energy and blasting effect, but having more robust housing);
   • armor-piercing cumulative (cumulative jet);
   • armor-piercing fragmentation / cumulative fragmentation (cumulative jet and fragments);
   • armor-piercing based on the principle of “shock core”;
   • incendiary (flame and temperature);
   • high-explosive incendiary (high-explosive and blasting action, flame and temperature);
   • high-explosive fragmentation-incendiary (fragmentation, high-explosive and high-explosive action, flame and temperature);
   • incendiary-smoke (damaging effects of flame and temperature; in addition, such a bomb produces smoke in the area);
   • poisonous / chemical and toxin (poisonous substance / agent);
   • poisonous smoke bombs (officially these bombs were called “smoking aerial bombs poisonous smoke");
   • fragmentation-poisonous/fragmentation-chemical (fragmentation and explosive agents);
   • infectious action/bacteriological (directly by pathogenic microorganisms or their carriers from insects and small rodents);
   • Conventional nuclear (at first called atomic) and thermonuclear bombs (initially in the USSR they were called atomic-hydrogen) are traditionally distinguished as separate category not only in terms of the active material, but also in terms of the damaging effect, although, strictly speaking, they should be considered high-explosive incendiary (adjusted for additional damaging factors of a nuclear explosion - radioactive radiation and fallout) ultra-high power. However, there are also “nuclear bombs of enhanced radiation” - their main damaging factor is radioactive radiation, specifically the neutron flux formed during the explosion (in connection with which such nuclear bombs received the common name “neutron”).
   • Also in a separate category are volumetric detonating bombs (also known as volumetric explosion, thermobaric, vacuum and fuel bombs).
3. by the nature of the target (this classification is not always applied) - for example, anti-bunker (Bunker Buster), anti-submarine, anti-tank and bridge bombs (the latter were intended for action on bridges and viaducts);
4. according to the method of delivery to the target - rocket (the bomb in this case is used as a missile warhead), aviation, ship/boat, artillery;
5. by mass, expressed in kilograms or pounds (for non-nuclear bombs) or power, expressed in kilotons/megatons) of TNT equivalent (for nuclear bombs). It should be noted that the caliber of a non-nuclear bomb is not its actual weight, but its correspondence to the dimensions of a certain standard weapon (which is usually a high-explosive bomb of the same caliber). The discrepancy between caliber and weight can be quite large - for example, the SAB-50-15 illumination bomb had a 50-kg caliber and weighed only 14.4-14.8 kg (a discrepancy of 3.5 times). On the other hand, the FAB-1500-2600TS aerial bomb (TS - “thick-walled”) has a 1500-kg caliber and weighs as much as 2600 kg (the discrepancy is more than 1.7 times);
6. according to the design of the warhead - monoblock, modular and cluster (initially the latter were called “rotational dispersal aircraft bombs”/RRAB in the USSR).
7. in terms of controllability - into uncontrollable (free-falling, in Western terminology - gravitational - and gliding) and controlled (adjustable).

Reactive depth charges (actually - unguided rockets with a warhead in the form of a depth charge), which are in service with the Russian Navy and the Navy of a number of other countries, are classified according to their firing range (in hundreds of meters) - for example, the RSL-60 (RSL - reactive depth charge) is fired (however, it is more correct to say - launched) from rocket launcher RBU-6000 at a range of up to 6000 m, RGB-10 from RBU-1000 - at 1000 m, etc.

Bomb consumption in major wars

Development of bomb production technologies and new types of bombs

Safety precautions when handling bombs

Bomb disposal

Bombs and terrorism

see also

Literature

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Synonyms:

See what “Bomb” is in other dictionaries:

Bombing, eh... Russian word stress

- (French bombe, Italian and Spanish bomba, from Greek bombus dull-burning). 1) a cast iron ball filled with gunpowder and thrown with a mortar; it breaks either during its flight or during its fall; also an explosive projectile in a metal shell for manual... ... Dictionary foreign words Russian language

2. Main bomb sizes in comparison

• 1: FAB-100
• 2: FAB-250
• 3: FAB-250-M46
• 4: OFAB-250
• 5: FAB-500M54
• 6: FAB-500
• 7: FAB-500-M62
• 8: FAB-5000

Models and types of bombs

Cross-type bombs

Intertype types of bombs types of bombs, the features of which can be shared by all types of bombs.

• Assault bombs that have a deployable braking parachute, which provides low-altitude bombing without the risk of damaging your aircraft with fragments and eliminates the possibility of ricochet deceleration) providing high accuracy bombing. It also ensures greater dispersion of fragments for FAB and OFAB, since the bomb falls at a greater angle. Assault bombs can be built-in or attached.
• Heat-resistant Bombs that have a heat-protective structure or a heat-protective shell are designed for suspension on high-altitude supersonic interceptors, such as the MiG-25 and MiG-31.

High explosive

High-explosive aerial bombs are aerial bombs whose main destructive effect is the action of a landmine. They have the most powerful and versatile destructive effect among main-purpose aerial bombs. The mass of explosives in a bomb is approximately 50%, and the bomb also has a relatively strong body for penetrating into the ground or into obstacles such as the floors of buildings and structures.
Main damaging actions

• Gaseous explosion products with high excess pressure
• Shock waves in air or soil and seismic waves
• Fragments from crushing the bomb body

Basic goals

• Logistics and communications facilities
• Military-industrial and energy facilities
• Combat vehicles
• Living force

Modern general-purpose FABs weigh 250 kg or more. They can have several forms:

• Blunt are designed for the most efficient placement inside the fuselage. Release is provided at near- and subsonic speeds and altitudes of up to 15-16 km.
• High aspect ratio I have a streamlined head section, designed mainly for aircraft with external suspension, including supersonic ones. They have less drag and are more stable.
• Thick-walled Designed for action against particularly durable targets. They are distinguished by a more massive and durable head part, a thicker body, and the absence of a fuse head and ignition cup.

High explosive
Abbreviation	Image	Diameter	Length	Bomb mass	Explosive mass	Notes
FAB-50TSK		219	936	60	25	Solid forged
FAB-100		267	964	100	70
FAB-250		285	1589	250	99
FAB-250-M54		325	1795	268	97
FAB-250-M62		300	1924	227	100
FAB-250TS		300	1500	256	61,4	Thick-walled, Armor penetration 1m
FAB-250SHL		325	1965	266	137
FAB-500		392	2142	500	213
FAB-500T		400	2425	477	191	Heat resistant
FAB-500-M54		450	1790	528	201
FAB-500-M62		400	2425	500	200
FAB-500SHN		450	2190	513	221	Low-altitude assault
FAB-500SHL		450	2220	515	221	Assault, surface explosion
FAB-1000		-	-	-	-
FAB-1500		580	3000	1400	1200
FAB-1500T		-	-	1488	870 TE	Heat resistant
FAB-1500-2500TS		-	-	2151	436 TE	Thick-walled, armor penetration 2500mm
FAB-1500-M54		-	-	1550	675,6
FAB-2000		-	-	-	-
FAB-3000		-	-	3067	1387
FAB-3000-M46		-	-	3000	1400
FAB-3000-M54		-	-	3067	1200
FAB-5000		642	3107	4900	2207
FAB-5000-M54		-	-	5247	2210,6
FAB-9000-M54		-	-	9407	4297

Schematic diagram of OFAB Detonator Explosive Housing

High-explosive fragmentation

OFAB high-explosive fragmentation bomb is a regular high-explosive bomb, but with a lower explosive filling of about 30-35%, and special means of organized crushing of the body, such as a sawtooth inner side of the body or a system of longitudinal and transverse grooves.

Basic goals

• Objects of military equipment and weapons
• Military-industrial facilities
• Living force

High-explosive fragmentation
Abbreviation	Image	Diameter	Length	Bomb mass	Explosive mass	Notes
OFAB-100-120		273	1300	133	42
OFAB-250T		300	2050	239	92	Heat resistant
OFAB-250SHL		325	1991	266	92	Assault, surface explosion
OFAB-250-270		325	1456	266	97
OFAB-250SHN		325	1966	268	93	Low-altitude assault
OFAB-500U		400	2300	515	159	Universal
OFAB-500ShR		450	2500	509	125	Assault, with multiple warheads

Concrete-piercing and anti-submarine

BetAB concrete-piercing aerial bomb. Designed for effective destruction of reinforced concrete shelters and runways. Structurally, they are divided into 2 types:

• Free fall designed for bombing with high altitudes. Structurally close to thick-walled high-explosive bombs.
• With a parachute and a jet accelerator designed for bombing from any heights. Due to the parachute, the bomb is tilted to 60°, the parachute is unfastened and the rocket accelerator is turned on.

PLAB anti-submarine bomb. Designed to destroy submarines. May have different designs. Large caliber bombs usually have a proximity fuse and hit a target with a high explosive effect at a distance. Small-caliber bombs are usually used as part of cassettes and have a contact fuse and a cumulative bomb design.

Concrete-piercing and anti-submarine
Abbreviation	Image	Diameter	Length	Bomb mass	Explosive mass	Notes
BetAB-500		350	2200	477	76
BetAB-500ShP		325	2500	380	77	Assault, with jet accelerator
BetAB-500U		450	2480	510	45 TE
PLAB-250-120		240	1500	123	61

Incendiary and volume-detonating

ZAB Incendiary aerial bomb. Designed to destroy manpower and military equipment with fire. The caliber of incendiary bombs does not exceed 500 kg. Structurally incendiary bombs are divided into 2 types:

• With pyrotechnic incendiary composition used in all bombs less than 100 kg, and in some with a caliber of more than 100. The pyrotechnic composition is usually thermite with a binder. The body usually consists of flammable electron metal.
• With a viscous fire mixture used for bombs with a caliber of 100 to 500 kg. A fire mixture is organic flammable substances thickened to a viscous state with special substances. The fire mixture in a thickened state is crushed during an explosion into large pieces, which burn for several minutes at a temperature of about 1000°C. The design of the bomb also includes a cartridge with phosphorus and a small explosive charge; after detonation, the phosphorus spontaneously ignites in air and ignites the fire mixture.
• FZAB high-explosive incendiary bomb. They are a combination of FAB and ZAB in one body. When a bomb is detonated, the incendiary part detonates first, and then the high explosive part.
• ZB incendiary tank. They are ZAB in a thin-walled casing without a stabilizer and without an explosive charge. Scattering and crushing is carried out by means of a hydraulic shock that occurs when it hits an obstacle. Can only be used effectively from low altitudes.

ODAB volumetric detonating bomb. Provides greater efficiency in terms of manpower and vulnerable equipment than FAB. When encountering an obstacle, the dispersing charge is triggered, the body is destroyed, the fuel is crushed and scattered. The fuel evaporates and, mixing with air, forms a cloud of air-fuel mixture. After the time required for the formation of a cloud of sufficient size, the secondary detonating explosive charge undermines the air-fuel mixture.

Incendiary and volume-detonating
Abbreviation	Image	Diameter	Length	Bomb mass	Explosive mass	Notes
ZAB-100-105		273	1065	106,9	28,5
ZAB-250-200		325	1500	202	60
ZB-500ShM		500	2500	317	260
ZB-500GD		500	2500	270-340	218-290
FZAB-500M		400	2500	500	86+49
OFZAB-500		450	2500	500	250
ODAB-500PM		500	2280	520	193
AVBPM		-	-		7100

Cassette

RBC disposable bomb clusters. They are thin-walled aerial bombs, designed for the use of small-caliber aerial bombs. The name consists of an abbreviated name and type of equipment. Some RBCs are equipped with a removable fairing, which allows the RBC to be effectively installed on aircraft with both an external sling and an internal weapons bay. Based on the method of dispersing combat elements, RBCs are divided into two types:

• Obturator type have in their design a rigidly fixed obturator disk, which, after actuation, remote fuse and when the expelling charge is ignited under the action of powder gases, it is separated from the cup and moves inside the bomb body along with a central pipe around which small aerial bombs are placed. The tail cone separates, and the combat elements extend beyond the cassette.
• With a central ignition-explosive charge the bomb design has a central perforated pipe with a fire protection device and a lateral weakened section closed by a strip. When the fuse is triggered, the VRZ is initiated. The resulting gases destroy the cross-section of the bomb body and scatter aerial bombs, thereby achieving a large area of ​​scattering of aerial bombs.

KMGU small cargo container. Designed for transportation and release of BKF with submunitions. KMSU itself during combat use is located on the aircraft pylon and is not dropped. Structurally, the KMGU is a streamlined body with controlled flaps, compartments for suspending the BKF and automation that allows you to adjust the block release interval.

Cluster bomb submunitions

Relatively small caliber bombs are used as submunitions for cluster bombs. Due to the specifics of their use, in addition to the types of bombs described above, there are also specialized bombs currently used mainly only in cluster bombs and KMGU.

AO, OAB fragmentation bomb. Air bombs whose main effect is fragments of the hull. The caliber of bombs ranges from 0.5 to 50 kg. They are designed to destroy manpower, non- and lightly armored vehicles. Old aerial bombs have a cylindrical body with a rigid stabilizer that provides irregular crushing; modern bombs have a spherical or hemispherical design, a folding stabilizer, aerodynamic devices, notches for organized crushing of the body, or ready-made submunitions.
Bombs with ready-made fragments are made from two hemispheres reinforced with steel balls. Inside the case there is a bursting charge and a contact fuse.
Bombs with notches also have a delayed fuse. When it encounters an obstacle, such a bomb is divided into two parts and, after the time required to rise by several meters, is detonated.

PTAB anti-tank aircraft bomb. Designed to destroy armored objects. The destructive effect is the cumulative jet formed by a cumulative notch inside the bomb body. Also, when detonated, the bomb body forms fragments that can hit manpower and unarmored vehicles. For an effective impact of a cumulative jet, the explosion must occur at a distance called focal. Older bombs have a contact head or bottom fuse. Modern bombs have a head fuze with a target sensor.

Notes RBC-500U OFAB-50UD high-explosive fragmentation 450 2500 520 10 50 Universal RBC-500 AO2.5RTM fragmentation 450 2500 504 108 2,5 RBC-500 OAB2.5RTM fragmentation 450 2500 500 126 2,5 RBC-500 BetAB concrete-breaking 450 2500 525 12 - RBC-500U BetAB-M concrete-breaking 450 2495 480 10 - Universal RBC-500 PTAB-1M 450 1954 427 268 - RBK-500U PTAB anti-tank, cumulative 450 2500 520 352 - Universal RBC-500U SPBE-D self-aiming anti-tank 450 2485 500 15 - Universal RBK-250 ZAB2.5M incendiary 325 1492 195 48 2,5 RBC-500 ZAB2.5 incendiary 450 1954 480 297 2,5 RBK-100 PLAB-10K anti-submarine 240 1585 125 6 10

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 life, but even the most reliable structures and buildings. Russia's nuclear reserves alone are enough to completely destroy our planet. And it is not surprising, since the country has the richest stock of atomic weapons after the United States. The Soviet “Kuzkina Mother” or “Tsar Bomba”, tested in 1961, became the most powerful atomic weapon of all time.

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

10. Little boy | Yield 18 kilotons

Little boy(“Baby”) is 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 power of 18 kilotons caused the death of 140 thousand residents of Hiroshima. The device, 3 meters long and 70 cm in diameter, created a nuclear column more than 6 kilometers high. “Little Boy” and “Fat Man” who “followed” him brought considerable damage to two Japanese cities, which to this day remain uninhabited.

9. Fat Man | Yield 21 kilotons

Fat Man(Fat Man) - the second nuclear bomb that the United States used against Japan. Victims nuclear weapons became residents of the city of Nagasaki. The explosion, with a power of 21 kilotons, claimed the lives of 80 thousand people immediately, and another 35 thousand died from radiation exposure. This is the most powerful weapon in the entire existence of mankind, which was used for military purposes.

8. Trinity | Yield 21 kilotons

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

7.Baker | Yield 21 kilotons

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

6. Rhea | Yield 955 kilotons

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

5. Castle Romeo | Power 11 megatons

- one of the most powerful explosions produced by the United States. The operation was accepted for execution on March 27, 1954. The explosion took place on a barge in open ocean, because 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. Mike's device | Power 12 megatons

Mike's 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 Mike's nuclear wave was estimated at 12 megatons of TNT equivalent. 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 crater 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 | Yield 13.5 megatons

- the second most powerful nuclear explosion produced by American tests. It was expected that the initial power of the device would be no more than 10 megatons of TNT. As it turned out, the nuclear explosion was very powerful and was estimated at 13.5 megatons. The height of the stem of the nuclear mushroom was 40 km, and the cap was 16 km. Within four days, the radiation cloud reached Mexico City, which is located 11,000 km from the site of the operation.

2. Castle Bravo | Power 15 megatons

Castle Bravo(Shrimp TX -21) - the most powerful atomic bomb ever tested in the United States. The operation was carried out in March 1954 and had irreversible consequences. The explosion, with a power of 15 megatons, caused severe radiation contamination. Hundreds of people living in the Marshall Islands were exposed to radiation. 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 a huge crater on the seabed, 2 km in diameter. The consequences that resulted from the tests became the reason for limiting operations carried out with nuclear projectiles.

1. Tsar Bomba | Yield 58 megatons

(AN602) is 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 on the Novaya Zemlya archipelago. It was originally planned that AN602 would have a power of 100 megatons, but fearing the global destructive power of the weapon, they agreed that the force of the explosion would not exceed 58 megatons. At an altitude of 4 km, the Tsar Bomba was activated and gave stunning results. The diameter of the fire cloud reached about 10 km. The nuclear pillar was about 67 km in height, and the diameter of the pillar 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 almost a thousand kilometers. On the island where the test took place, there were no traces of life or any buildings left; absolutely everything was leveled to the surface of the earth. The seismic wave of the explosion circled the entire planet three times, and every inhabitant of the planet was able to feel the full power of nuclear weapons. After this test, more than a hundred countries signed an agreement to stop this type of operations both in the atmosphere, under water and on land.

The destructive power of which, when exploded, cannot be stopped by anyone. Which one is the most powerful bomb in the world? To answer this question, you need to understand the features of certain bombs.

What is a bomb?

Nuclear power plants operate on the principle of release and containment nuclear energy. This process must be controlled. The released energy turns into electricity. An atomic bomb causes a chain reaction that is completely uncontrollable, and the huge amount of released energy causes terrible destruction. Uranium and plutonium are not so harmless elements of the periodic table; they lead to global catastrophes.

Atomic bomb

To understand what the most powerful atomic bomb on the planet is, we’ll learn more about everything. Hydrogen and atomic bombs belong to nuclear energy. If you combine two pieces of uranium, but each has a mass below the critical mass, then this “union” will far exceed the critical mass. Each neutron participates in a chain reaction because it splits the nucleus and releases another 2-3 neutrons, which cause new decay reactions.

Neutron force is completely beyond human control. In less than a second, hundreds of billions of newly formed decays not only release enormous amounts of energy, but also become sources of intense radiation. This radioactive rain covers the earth, fields, plants and all living things in a thick layer. If we talk about the disasters in Hiroshima, we can see that 1 gram caused the death of 200 thousand people.

Working principle and advantages of a vacuum bomb

It is believed that a vacuum bomb created by the latest technologies, can compete with nuclear. The fact is that instead of TNT, a gas substance is used here, which is several tens of times more powerful. The high-power aircraft bomb is the most powerful vacuum bomb in the world, which is not a nuclear weapon. It can destroy the enemy, but houses and equipment will not be damaged, and there will be no decay products.

What is the principle of its operation? Immediately after being dropped from the bomber, a detonator is activated at some distance from the ground. The body is destroyed and a huge cloud is sprayed. When mixed with oxygen, it begins to penetrate anywhere - into houses, bunkers, shelters. The burning out of oxygen creates a vacuum everywhere. When this bomb is dropped, a supersonic wave is produced and very heat.

The difference between an American vacuum bomb and a Russian one

The differences are that the latter can destroy an enemy even in a bunker using the appropriate warhead. During an explosion in the air, the warhead falls and hits the ground hard, burrowing to a depth of 30 meters. After the explosion, a cloud is formed, which, increasing in size, can penetrate into shelters and explode there. American warheads are filled with ordinary TNT, so they destroy buildings. A vacuum bomb destroys a specific object because it has a smaller radius. It doesn’t matter which bomb is the most powerful - any of them delivers an incomparable destructive blow that affects all living things.

H-bomb

The hydrogen bomb is another terrible nuclear weapon. The combination of uranium and plutonium generates not only energy, but also temperature, which rises to a million degrees. Hydrogen isotopes combine to form helium nuclei, which creates a source of colossal energy. The hydrogen bomb is the most powerful - fact. It is enough just to imagine that its explosion is equal to the explosions of 3,000 atomic bombs in Hiroshima. Both in the USA and in former USSR you can count 40 thousand bombs of varying power - nuclear and hydrogen.

The explosion of such ammunition is comparable to the processes observed inside the Sun and stars. Fast neutrons split the uranium shells of the bomb itself at enormous speed. Not only heat is released, but also radioactive fallout. There are up to 200 isotopes. The production of such nuclear weapons is cheaper than atomic ones, and their effect can be enhanced as many times as desired. This is the most powerful bomb detonated in the Soviet Union on August 12, 1953.

Consequences of the explosion

The result of a hydrogen bomb explosion is threefold. The very first thing that happens is a powerful blast wave is observed. Its power depends on the height of the explosion and the type of terrain, as well as the degree of air transparency. Large firestorms can form that do not subside for several hours. And yet the secondary and most dangerous consequence, which the most powerful can cause thermonuclear bomb- this is radioactive radiation and contamination of the surrounding area for a long time.

Radioactive remains from a hydrogen bomb explosion

In case of explosion fire ball contains many very small radioactive particles that are retained in the atmospheric layer of the earth and remain there for a long time. Upon contact with the ground, this fireball creates incandescent dust consisting of decay particles. First, the larger one settles, and then the lighter one, which is carried hundreds of kilometers with the help of the wind. These particles can be seen with the naked eye; for example, such dust can be seen on snow. It is fatal if anyone gets nearby. The smallest particles can remain in the atmosphere for many years and “travel” in this way, circling the entire planet several times. Their radioactive emissions will become weaker by the time they fall out as precipitation.

Its explosion is capable of wiping Moscow off the face of the earth in a matter of seconds. The city center could easily evaporate in the literal sense of the word, and everything else could turn into tiny rubble. The most powerful bomb in the world would wipe out New York and all its skyscrapers. It would leave behind a twenty-kilometer-long molten smooth crater. With such an explosion, it would not have been possible to escape by going down to the subway. The entire territory within a radius of 700 kilometers would be destroyed and infected with radioactive particles.

Explosion of the Tsar Bomba - to be or not to be?

In the summer of 1961, scientists decided to conduct a test and observe the explosion. The most powerful bomb in the world was to explode at a test site located in the very north of Russia. The huge area of ​​the test site occupies the entire territory of the island of Novaya Zemlya. The scale of the defeat was supposed to be 1000 kilometers. The explosion could have left industrial centers such as Vorkuta, Dudinka and Norilsk contaminated. Scientists, having comprehended the scale of the disaster, put their heads together and realized that the test was cancelled.

There was no place to test the famous and incredibly powerful bomb anywhere on the planet, only Antarctica remained. But it was also not possible to carry out an explosion on the icy continent, since the territory is considered international and obtaining permission for such tests is simply unrealistic. I had to reduce the charge of this bomb by 2 times. The bomb was nevertheless detonated on October 30, 1961 in the same place - on the island of Novaya Zemlya (at an altitude of about 4 kilometers). During the explosion, a monstrous huge atomic mushroom was observed, which rose 67 kilometers into the air, and the shock wave circled the planet three times. By the way, in the Arzamas-16 museum in the city of Sarov, you can watch newsreels of the explosion on an excursion, although they claim that this spectacle is not for the faint of heart.

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

Currently, aerial bombs have become one of the main means of destroying 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), civil and military infrastructure facilities. Main damaging factors air bombs are a blast wave, fragments, high temperature. There are special types of bombs that contain various types of toxic substances to destroy enemy personnel.

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

Guided aerial bombs (UAB) are one of the most common types of modern high-precision weapons; they combine significant warhead power and high accuracy in hitting a target. In general, it should be noted that the use of high-precision weapons is one of the main directions of development attack aircraft, the era of carpet bombing is gradually becoming a thing of the past.

If you ask the average person what types of aerial bombs there are, 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 types ammunition. They differ not only in caliber, the nature of the destructive effect, the weight of the explosive and the purpose. The classification of aircraft bombs is quite complex and is based on several principles at once, and in different countries ah she has some differences.

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

Story

The idea of ​​using aircraft in military affairs was born almost immediately after their appearance. At the same time, the simplest and most logical way to harm an 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 World War I - 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 (flechettes) were also used to hit ground targets, which were more or less effective against enemy personnel.

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

The first full-fledged WWII bomber was the Russian aircraft “Ilya Muromets”. Soon, similar multi-engine bomber aircraft appeared in service with all parties to the conflict. At the same time, work was underway to improve their main means of destroying the enemy - aerial bombs. The designers were faced with several tasks, the main one of which was the ammunition fuse - it was necessary to ensure that it would fire at the right moment. The stability of the first bombs was insufficient - they fell to the ground sideways. The first aerial bombs were often made from casings artillery shells of different calibers, but their shape was not very suitable for precise bombing, and they were very expensive.

After the creation of the first heavy bombers, the military needed serious caliber ammunition capable of causing really serious damage to the enemy. Already by mid-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 the arsenal of other countries participating in the conflict. Russian inventor Dashkevich came up with a “barometric” bomb, the fuse of which was triggered 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, aerial bombs and bombers went an incredible path - from metal arrows to half-ton bombs. modern form with an effective fuse and an in-flight stabilization system.

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

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

A rotary dispersal bomb was a thin-walled container containing a large number of small bombs: high-explosive, fragmentation or incendiary. Thanks to the special design of the tail, the rotary dispersal bomb rotated in flight and scattered submunitions over a large area. Since the USSR assured that soviet planes do not bomb the cities of Finland, but drop food to the starving, the Finns wittily nicknamed the rotary-dispersal bombs “Molotov’s bread bins.”

During Polish campaign The Germans were the first to use real cluster bombs, which in their design are practically no different from modern ones. They were thin-walled ammunition that detonated 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. The German Ju 87 Stuka attack aircraft became a symbol of the new military concept- Blitzkrieg, and American and British bombers successfully implemented the Douai doctrine, wiping out 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 first began to be used during the Second World War, it is worth noting anti-tank, as well as jet (or rocket) aerial bombs. Anti-tank bombs are a special type of aircraft ammunition designed to combat enemy armored vehicles. They usually had a small caliber and cumulative combat unit. An example of this is the Soviet PTAB bombs, which were actively used by Red Army aviation against German tanks.

Rocket bombs are a type of aircraft munition equipped with a rocket engine, which gives it additional acceleration. The principle of their operation was simple: the “penetrating” ability of a bomb depends on its mass and height of release. In the USSR before the war, 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 accelerator on the ammunition, then both parameters can be reduced several times. It was not possible to produce 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 became acquainted with a new destructive weapons- nuclear bomb. This type of aircraft munition is still in service around the world, although the importance of nuclear bombs has decreased significantly.

Combat aviation continuously developed during the period Cold War, together with it, aerial bombs were also improved. However, nothing fundamentally new was invented during this period. Guided aerial bombs and cluster munitions were improved, and bombs with a volumetric detonating warhead (vacuum bombs) appeared.

Since about the mid-70s, aerial bombs have increasingly become precision-guided weapons. If during the Vietnam campaign UAB accounted for only 1% of the total number of aerial 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 - to 24 %. In 2003, 70% of American bombs in Iraq were precision weapons.

The improvement of aviation ammunition continues to this day.

Air bombs, their design features and classification

An aircraft bomb is a type of ammunition that consists of a body, a stabilizer, ammunition and one or more fuses. Most often, the body has an oval-cylindrical shape with a conical tail. The casings of fragmentation, high-explosive and high-explosive fragmentation bombs (OFAB) are made in such a way as to produce the maximum amount of fragments upon explosion. In the bottom and bow parts of the body there are usually special cups for installing fuses; some types of bombs also have side fuses.

The explosives used in aircraft bombs vary greatly. Most often this is TNT or its alloys with hexogen, ammonium nitrate, etc. In incendiary ammunition, the warhead is filled with incendiary compounds or flammable liquids.

For suspension on the body of aerial bombs there are special ears, with the exception of small-caliber ammunition, which is placed in cassettes or bundles.

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

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

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

• basic;
• auxiliary.

Basic aircraft bombs are designed to directly destroy various targets.

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

Basic aerial bombs can be divided according to the type of damage they cause:

1. Regular. These include ammunition filled with conventional explosive or incendiary substances. Targets are hit due to a blast wave, fragments, and high temperature.
2. Chemical. This category of aerial bombs includes ammunition filled with chemical agents. 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; damage occurs due to a shock wave, light radiation, radiation, or electromagnetic wave.

There is a classification of aerial bombs based on a narrower definition of lethality; it is used most often. According to it, aerial 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.

The list goes on.

The main characteristics of aerial bombs include: caliber, efficiency indicators, filling factor, characteristic time and range of combat use conditions.

One of the main characteristics of any aerial bomb is its caliber. This is the mass of the ammunition in kilograms. Quite conventionally, bombs are divided into small, medium and large caliber. Which particular group a particular aerial bomb belongs to largely depends on its type. So, for example, a 100-kilogram high-explosive bomb is classified as a small caliber, and its fragmentation or incendiary counterpart is classified as medium.

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

Characteristic time is a parameter that is associated with the ballistic properties of a 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 arbitrary parameter for aircraft bombs. It differs for different types of this 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 combat use conditions shows the characteristics at which bombing is possible: maximum and minimum speed, altitude.

Types of aerial bombs

The most commonly used aerial bombs are high explosives. Even a small 50 kg bomb contains more explosive than a 210 mm gun shell. The reason is very simple - the bomb does not need to withstand the enormous loads that a projectile in a gun barrel is subjected to, so it can be made thin-walled. The projectile body 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 using high-explosive bombs of very large calibers (above 1 thousand kg) is not always rational. As the mass of the explosive increases, the damage radius does not increase too significantly. Therefore, it is much more effective to use several medium-power ammunition over a large area.

Another common type of aerial bomb is fragmentation bomb. The main target of such bombs is enemy personnel or civilians. These munitions are designed to produce large amounts of fragments after detonation. They usually have a notch on inside casings or ready-made submunitions (most often balls or needles) placed inside the casing. When a hundred-kilogram fragmentation bomb explodes, it produces 5-6 thousand small fragments.

As a rule, fragmentation bombs have a smaller caliber than high-explosive bombs. 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. Nowadays, cluster fragmentation munitions, which are a container filled with small fragmentation submunitions, are more common.

Such bombs cause significant casualties, with civilians suffering the most from their effects. Therefore, such weapons are prohibited by many conventions.

Concrete bombs. This is a very interesting type of ammunition; its predecessor is considered to be the so-called seismic bombs, developed by the British at the beginning of World War II. The idea was this: to make very big bomb(5.4 tons - Tallboy and 10 tons - Grand Slam), raise it higher - about eight kilometers - and drop it on the head of the adversary. The bomb, accelerating to enormous 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 idea. The underground explosion, of course, shook the soil, but clearly not enough to collapse the 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 can gain higher speed and penetrated deeper into the earth.

Vacuum bombs. These aircraft munitions became one of the few post-war inventions, although the Germans were still interested in volumetric explosion munitions at the end of World War II. The Americans began to use them en masse during the Vietnam campaign.

The operating principle of volumetric explosion aviation ammunition is more correct name- quite simple. The warhead of the bomb contains a substance that, upon detonation, is detonated by a special charge and turns into an aerosol, after which the second charge sets it on fire. Such an explosion is several times more powerful than a normal one, and here’s why: regular TNT (or other explosives) contains explosive, and an oxidizer, a “vacuum” bomb uses air oxygen for oxidation (combustion).

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

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