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From: howard@cos.com (Howard C. Berkowitz)
Newsgroups: sci.military
Subject: Re: Largest Bomb dropped
Summary: fuel-air explosive
Message-ID: <5169@cbnews.ATT.COM>
Date: 28 Mar 89 03:43:15 GMT
References: <4876@cbnews.ATT.COM> <5032@cbnews.ATT.COM> <5144@cbnews.ATT.COM>
Sender: military@cbnews.ATT.COM
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From: howard@cos.com (Howard C. Berkowitz)

In article <5144@cbnews.ATT.COM>, ssc-vax!shuksan!major@beaver.cs.washington.edu (Mike Schmitt) writes:
> 
> 
> From: ssc-vax!shuksan!major@beaver.cs.washington.edu (Mike Schmitt)
> 
> 
> > > I've read stories about a ten ton (??) bomb being used in Vietnam.  
> 
>     Are these the 'daisy cutters' that made the LZs?  They weren't THAT
>     good.  It left 3-4 foot high tree stumps all over the LZ - which meant
>     the assault helos had to hover over them while the troops exited.  
>     Carrying a 50lb rucksack - that hurts! 
>  
> > The C-130 bomb weighed 15,000 lbs. It was a gas bomb ie it allowed propane,
> 
    I think the bombs we are discussing are fuel-air explosives, sometimes
    implemented as a single canister and more often as cluster munitions.
    They use ethylene oxide, not propane; their delivery height and such
    is relatively critical, because the gas cloud must form  and have the
    proper fuel-air ratio before a separate igniter actuates -- these
    do not have a single burster charge!

    If anyone has the Fort Bragg Student Text on special forces techniques,
    it will show a field expedient version of a fuel-air explosive,
    involving a small burster charge scattering gasoline, _flour_, etc.,
    and then firing a secondary incendiary charge to ignite the fuel.

    In _Red October_. Tom Clancy uses fuel-air explosives to get extremely
    high explosive yield within a (no spoilers) relatively confined
    space.  He called the weapons Pave Pat Blue, which may be correct;
    memory does not serve.  I consider his example highly unlikely,
    since it would be quite difficult to get the necessary air-gas ratio
    in a constricted area with obstructions -- these bombs are meant
    to form an airburst! 
> 
>      I 'heard' (ie totally unsubstantiated) that this 'propane' bomb created
>      a very distinct 'mushroom shape' cloud - and that the Air Force was
>      told not to use it anymore in Vietnam - for obvious reasons.
>      (can anyone clarify this?)


    


Virtually any large explosion creates a mushroom cloud -- see pictures
of ammunition ship explosions such as Texas City and Halifax.

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