Path: utzoo!censor!geac!torsqnt!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!bonnie.concordia.ca!uunet!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!pacific.mps.ohio-state.edu!linac!att!cbnews!cbnews!military From: finn@isi.edu (Greg Finn) Newsgroups: sci.military Subject: Re: Size of Fuel Air Munitions Message-ID: <1991Jan16.012657.9091@cbnews.att.com> Date: 16 Jan 91 01:26:57 GMT References: <1991Jan14.011347.6684@cbnews.att.com> Sender: military@cbnews.att.com (William B. Thacker) Organization: USC-Information Sciences Institute Lines: 19 Approved: military@att.att.com From: Greg Finn >From: Jeff Berkowitz >I recently recieved some secondhand information that the US now has >Fuel Air weapons in the kiloton range, that is, equivalent to small >(tactical) nuclear weapons. ... >I was somewhat incredulous, except that (1) I have a high degree of >trust in the source, ... I am not a military weapons analyst. However, fuel air munitions are chemical in nature. A kiloton charge is 1000 tons of TNT equivalent explosive. Bomb and shell sizes are practically limited to several tons. For your hypothetical bomb to exist, a fuel would need an energy to mass ratio at least 100 times larger than that for TNT. So, I doubt it.