Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!samsung!sdd.hp.com!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!uwm.edu!linac!att!cbnews!cbnews!military From: tom@bears.ucsb.edu (Tom Weinstein) Newsgroups: sci.military Subject: Re: Size of Fuel Air Munitions Message-ID: <1991Jan18.004107.8948@cbnews.att.com> Date: 18 Jan 91 00:41:07 GMT References: <1991Jan14.011347.6684@cbnews.att.com> Sender: military@cbnews.att.com (William B. Thacker) Organization: Silicon Graphics Inc. Lines: 19 Approved: military@att.att.com From: tom@bears.ucsb.edu (Tom Weinstein) In article <1991Jan16.012657.9091@cbnews.att.com>, finn@isi.edu (Greg Finn) writes: > 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. True, but isn't it also true that nuclear weapons don't scale well because the explosion is centralized? Coulddn't you get the same destructive power out of an FAE that you could out of a kiloton nuke? -- He is Bob...eager for fun. | Tom Weinstein tom@bears.ucsb.edu He wears a smile... Everybody run! | tweinst@polyslo.calpoly.edu