A cluster munition is a form of air-dropped or ground-launched explosive weapon that releases or ejects smaller submunitions. Commonly, this is a cluster bomb that ejects explosive bomblets that are designed to kill personnel and destroy vehicles. Other cluster munitions are designed to destroy runways or electric power transmission lines.
The Israeli Air Force operates as the aerial and space warfare branch of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF). It was founded on May 28, 1948, shortly after the Israeli Declaration of Independence. As of April 2022, Aluf Tomer Bar has been serving as the Air Force commander.
The Sukhoi Su-7 is a swept wing, supersonic fighter aircraft developed by the Soviet Union in 1955. Originally, it was designed as a tactical, low-level dogfighter, but was not successful in this role. On the other hand, the soon-introduced Su-7B series became the main Soviet fighter-bomber and ground-attack aircraft of the 1960s. The Su-7 was rugged in its simplicity, but its Lyulka AL-7 engine had such high fuel consumption that it seriously limited the aircraft's payload, as even short-range missions required that at least two hardpoints be used to carry drop tanks rather than ordnance.
Named after a mythical medieval French sword, the Durandal is an anti-runway penetration bomb developed by the French company Matra, designed to destroy airport runways and exported to several countries. A simple crater in a runway could be filled in without issue, so the Durandal uses two explosions to displace the concrete slabs of a runway, thus making the damage to the runway far more difficult to repair.
The CBU-97 Sensor Fuzed Weapon is a United States Air Force 1,000-pound (450 kg)-class freefall Cluster Bomb Unit. It was developed and produced by Textron Defense Systems. A CBU-97 used in conjunction with the Wind Corrected Munitions Dispenser guidance tail kit is converted to a precision-guided weapon, and the combination is designated CBU-105.
Offensive counter-air(OCA) is a military term for the suppression of an enemy's military air power, primarily through ground attacks targeting enemy air bases: disabling or destroying parked aircraft, runways, fuel facilities, hangars, air traffic control facilities and other aviation infrastructure. Ground munitions like bombs are typically less expensive than more sophisticated air-to-air munitions, and a single ground munition can destroy or disable multiple aircraft in a very short time whereas aircraft already flying must typically be shot down one at a time. Enemy aircraft already flying also represent an imminent threat as they can usually fire back, and therefore destroying them before they can take off minimizes the risk to friendly aircraft.
A hardened aircraft shelter (HAS) or protective aircraft shelter (PAS) is a reinforced hangar to house and protect military aircraft from enemy attack. Cost considerations and building practicalities limit their use to fighter size aircraft.
The Mk 20 Rockeye II, CBU-99 Rockeye II, and CBU-100 Rockeye II comprise an American cluster bomb family which are employed primarily in an anti-tank mode against armored vehicles.
BL755 is a cluster bomb developed by Hunting Aircraft that contains 147 parachute-retarded high explosive anti-tank (HEAT) submunitions. Its primary targets are armoured vehicles and tanks with secondary soft target capabilities. It entered service with the Royal Air Force (RAF) in 1973.
Operation Focus was the opening airstrike by Israel at the start of the Six-Day War in 1967. It is sometimes referred to as the "Sinai Air Strike". At 07:45 on 5 June 1967, the Israeli Air Force (IAF) under Maj. Gen. Mordechai Hod launched a massive airstrike that destroyed the majority of the Egyptian Air Force on the ground. Following Syrian and Jordanian attacks in retaliation, the Israeli Air Force proceeded to bomb air bases in those countries. By noon, the Egyptian, Jordanian and Syrian Air Forces, totaling about 450 aircraft, were destroyed. It was also very successful in disabling 18 airfields in Egypt, hindering Egyptian air operations for the duration of the war, and remains one of the most successful air attack campaigns in military history.
The JP233, originally known as the Low-Altitude Airfield Attack System (LAAAS), is a British submunition delivery system. It consists of large dispenser pods carrying several hundred submunitions designed to attack runways.
The CBU-24 is an unguided, aircraft delivered anti-personnel and anti-materiel weapon developed by the United States. Because it is an unguided weapon, the CBU-24 can be carried and dropped by any aircraft capable of carrying standard "dumb" or "iron" bombs.
The AGM-124 Wasp is a missile developed by the United States. The Wasp grew out of the 1975 WAAM program initiated by the US Air Force in order to develop a series of new air-to-ground anti-armour weapons for close-support aircraft. The three-pronged program led to the CBU-92/B ERAM, the CBU-90/B ACM, and the Wasp anti-armour missile. The Wasp is regarded as the most advanced of these weapons.
Operation Chengiz Khan was the code name assigned to the preemptive strikes carried out by the Pakistani Air Force (PAF) on the forward airbases and radar installations of the Indian Air Force (IAF) on the evening of 3 December 1971, and marked the formal initiation of hostilities of the Indo-Pakistani War of 1971. The operation targeted 11 of India's airfields and also included artillery strikes on Indian positions in Kashmir. The targets were the Indian Airbases of Amritsar, Ambala, Agra, Awantipur, Bikaner, Halwara, Jodhpur, Jaisalmer, Pathankot, Bhuj, Srinagar and Uttarlai and air defence radars at Amritsar and Faridkot.
The CBU-87 Combined Effects Munition (CEM) is a cluster bomb used by the United States Air Force, developed by Aerojet General/Honeywell and introduced in 1986 to replace the earlier cluster bombs used in the Vietnam War. CBU stands for Cluster Bomb Unit. When the CBU-87 is used in conjunction with the Wind Corrected Munitions Dispenser guidance tail kit, it becomes much more accurate, and is designated CBU-103.
The BLU-97/B Combined Effects Bomb is the submunition used in several cluster bomb type weapon systems, mainly the CBU-87 and its precision-guided version CBU-103. When the bomblets fall, they separate from the main bomb and independently free fall to the ground. They contain an inflatable bag (ballute) on the top of them, which slows them down and spreads them out. Once the bomblets reach a force of 6 Gs they arm themselves. As the bomblets fall, they are also spinning. Arming takes about 2.6 seconds. They have a combined shaped charge, fragmentation and incendiary effect on the target. It is very effective against and mainly used for anti-personnel, anti-materiel, and anti-armor.
The MW-1 is a German munitions dispenser similar to the British JP233. It is designed to be carried on the Tornado IDS, although it can be carried on the Lockheed F-104 Starfighter and the McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom II. The MW-1 started to be phased out after the German Government ratified the Convention on Cluster Munitions in 2009.
A precision-guided munition (PGM), also called a smart weapon, smart munition, or smart bomb, is a guided munition intended to hit a specific target, to minimize collateral damage and increase lethality against intended targets. During the Persian Gulf War guided munitions accounted for only 9% of weapons fired, but accounted for 75% of all successful hits. Despite guided weapons generally being used on more difficult targets, they were still 35 times more likely to destroy their targets per weapon dropped.
The BAP 100 is a French anti-runway cluster bomb developed in the mid-1970s, and which entered service with the French Air Force in the early 1980s. The bomb consists of eighteen submunitions, arranged in a cluster. Accelerated by an internal propulsion system, the munitions are designed to ensure total runway destruction in a single pass by aircraft.
The DRDO Smart Anti-Airfield Weapon (SAAW) is a long-range precision-guided anti-airfield weapon developed by India's Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO). It is designed to be capable of engaging ground targets with high precision up to a range of 100 kilometres (62 mi).
