General-purpose bomb
The GP bomb is a common weapon of fighter bomber and attack aircraft because it is useful for a variety of tactical applications and relatively cheap.
One notable example is the "daisy cutter" fuze used in Vietnam War era American weapons, an extended probe designed to ensure that the bomb would detonate on contact (even with foliage) rather than burying itself in earth or mud, which would reduce its effectiveness.
As early as World War II, the Luftwaffe was using extended-nose fuzes on bombs dropped by Stuka dive-bombers and other aircraft for exactly the same reason.
The combination is cheaper than a true guided missile (and can be more easily upgraded or replaced in service), but is substantially more accurate than an unguided bomb.
This class of weapons uses a shape known as Aero 1A, designed by Ed Heinemann of Douglas Aircraft as the result of studies in 1946.
However, recently, precision-guided variants of the Mk 81 bomb have begun a return to service, based on U.S. experience in Iraq after 2003, and the desire to reduce collateral damage compared to Mk 82 and larger bombs (e.g., when attacking a single small building in a populated area).
Since the Vietnam War and the 1967 USS Forrestal fire, United States Navy and United States Marine Corps GP bombs are distinguished by a thick ablative fire-retardant coating, which is designed to delay any potential accidental explosion in the event of a shipboard fire.
Land-based air forces typically do not use such coatings, largely because they add some 30 lb (14 kg) to the weight of the complete weapon.
[citation needed] Fire is less a danger in a land-based facility, where the personnel can be evacuated with relative ease, and the building be the only loss.
Also, losing a munitions storage building on land is far cheaper than sacrificing an entire naval vessel, even if one could easily evacuate the crew.
On August 14, 2020, Kaman Precision Products received roughly $57.3 million for a "cockpit-selectable" bomb fuze to be used on Mark 80 warheads (guided and unguided).
It was used by Soviet aircraft designers as a substitute for early nuclear weapons when determining the size and clearances of bomb bays.
In 1962 a new series of streamlined, low-drag bombs was introduced, designed for external carriage by fighter-bomber aircraft rather than in internal bays.
On 20 June 2024, Russia claimed that it used, for the first time, a FAB-3000 modified with a guidance wing kit near Lyptsi in Kharkiv Oblast.
[13] The Russian Ministry of Defense officially announced the use of the bomb on 14 July 2024 by publishing a video which showed a Su-34 tactical bomber launching it.
Other countries, including Australia,[30] Azerbaijan, Brazil, Chile, Greece,[31] Israel, Pakistan, Poland, Portugal, Romania, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, and Turkey, manufacture their own bombs, most of which are either licensed versions of the U.S. Mark 80 series or close copies.
