NEW SMART BOMB FOR FALLUJAH ASSAULT

Just in time for the assault on Fallujah: a new, satellite-​​guided bomb, espe­cially designed for urban com­bat.
U.S. forces are rely­ing more and more on air strikes to fight the insur­gents holed up in places like Fallujah. But the prob­lem is, these bombs are too damn big. Even if they land pre­cisely on tar­get, the chances of inno­cent bystanders get­ting hit is pretty high.
Our job is to destroy things if need be, Tech Sgt. Robert Franks tells Defense News. But why not use as lit­tle explo­sive as pos­si­ble? If we dont have to destroy some­thing, we dont want to.
Enter the 500-​​pound GBU-​​38 — half the size of what had been the small­est Joint Direct Attack Munition, or satellite-​​directed bomb. F-​​16s at Balad Air Base in Iraq are now being loaded up with the bombs. The U.S. Air Force “hopes within days” to begin using them, accord­ing to Defense News.
Since the Bush re-​​election, there’s been increas­ing chat­ter in the press about a major push by U.S. armed forces against Fallujah, the insur­gent strong­hold. These bombs would likely be among the weapons used in such a strike.

Aircraft from an undis­closed air­base else­where in the Middle East made the first com­bat use of the GBU-​​38 in early October. The Air Force said the bombs were used to destroy a meet­ing place of insur­gents linked to Abu-​​Musab Zarqawi…
Capt. Joe Sablatura, who com­mands the weapons flight here, said he and his troops have con­sulted those who worked on the other com­bat drop of the bombs, exchang­ing infor­ma­tion on build­ing and load­ing the weapons. He said he hopes to have approval to begin using the GBU-​​38 within days…
The Air Force is devel­op­ing an even smaller weapon, the 250-​​pound Small Diameter Bomb. Sablatura said that weapon will bring not only a more mea­sured use of explo­sive power, but the abil­ity to load more bombs on a fighter, expand­ing the num­ber of tar­gets that can be hit in a sin­gle sortie. 

THERE’S MORE: “American com­man­ders seem con­vinced that it is only a mat­ter of time before the Iraqi prime min­is­ter, Ayad Allawi, gives the order for them to retake the city,” the Times notes. “For many marines here, that order can­not come too soon. After a long sum­mer of cat-​​and-​​mouse games with shad­owy insur­gents, they are hun­gry for a deci­sive battle.”

November 4th, 2004 | Ammo and Munitions | Comments Off Both comments and pings are currently closed.