Bomb: Strategic Innovations in Modern Warfare

By Fouad Sabry

What is Bomb

A bomb is an explosive weapon that uses the exothermic reaction of an explosive material to provide an extremely sudden and violent release of energy. Detonations inflict damage principally through ground- and atmosphere-transmitted mechanical stress, the impact and penetration of pressure-driven projectiles, pressure damage, and explosion-generated effects. Bombs have been utilized since the 11th century starting in East Asia.

How you will benefit

(I) Insights, and validations about the following topics:

Chapter 1: Bomb

Chapter 2: Explosive

Chapter 3: Little Boy

Chapter 4: Thermobaric weapon

Chapter 5: Warhead

Chapter 6: Shaped charge

Chapter 7: Neutron bomb

Chapter 8: Detonator

Chapter 9: Nuclear weapon design

Chapter 10: Overpressure

(II) Answering the public top questions about bomb.

Who this book is for

Professionals, undergraduate and graduate students, enthusiasts, hobbyists, and those who want to go beyond basic knowledge or information for any kind of Bomb.

• Language: English
• Publisher: One Billion Knowledgeable
• Release date: Jun 20, 2024

Book preview

Chapter 1: Bomb

A bomb is an explosive weapon that utilizes the exothermic reaction of an explosive material to produce a fast and forceful release of energy. Detonations primarily cause damage via ground- and atmosphere-transmitted mechanical stress, impact and penetration of pressure-driven projectiles, pressure damage, and explosion-generated effects.

Although the term bomb is not typically applied to explosive devices used for civilian purposes such as construction or mining, the devices' users may occasionally refer to them as such. The military use of the term bomb, or more precisely aerial bomb action, generally refers to airdropped, non-powered explosive weapons that are most frequently employed by air forces and naval aviation. Other explosive military weapons that aren't categorized as bombs include shells, depth charges (used in water), and land mines. In unconventional warfare, a variety of offensive weapons may be referred to by different names. In recent Middle Eastern conflicts, for instance, insurgency militants have deployed homemade bombs known as improvised explosive devices (IEDs) to tremendous effect.

The term is derived from the Latin bombus, which in turn comes from the Greek βόμβος romanized bombos, An onomatopoeic phrase for 'explosion', 'buzzing'.

In East Asia in 1221, a Jurchen Jin army attacked a Chinese Song city with explosive bombs. Bombs constructed from bamboo tubes appear in the eleventh century.

The History of Jin 《金史》 (compiled by 1345) states that in 1232, As the Mongol general Subutai (1176–1240) descended on the Jin stronghold of Kaifeng, he was met with fierce resistance, The defenders' thunder crash bomb comprised of gunpowder placed in an iron container.

When the fuse was lit and the projectile was launched, there was a massive explosion. the noise of which resembled thunder, audible from about thirty kilometers away, The heat burnt and blasted vegetation over an area of more than half a mile.

When hit, Even iron armor was easily penetrated."

Explosive shock waves can induce body displacement (i.e., throwing people into the air), dismemberment, internal hemorrhage, and eardrum rupture.

A thermal wave is produced when an explosion suddenly releases heat.

Military bomb tests have documented temperatures of up to 2,480 °C (4,500 °F).

In addition to being capable of inflicting severe to catastrophic burns and producing secondary fires, these substances are also capable of causing secondary fires, Thermal wave effects are regarded to have a fairly limited range in comparison to shock and fragmentation effects.

This regulation has been contested, however, by means of the creation of thermobaric weaponry, which use negative shock wave effects and intense temperature to incinerate objects within the blast radius.

Fragmentation is caused by the acceleration of bomb case fragments and nearby physical objects. The use of fragmentation in bombs dates back to the 14th century and is mentioned in the Huolongjing, a Ming Dynasty treatise. The fragmentation bombs were stuffed with iron pellets and porcelain shards. After the bomb detonates, the resultant shards are capable of penetrating the skin and blinding enemy troops.

Conventionally, fragmentation is considered as small metal fragments flying at super-supersonic and hypersonic velocities. However, fragmentation can occur on an epic scale and travel vast distances. When the SS Grandcamp detonated in the Texas City Disaster on April 16, 1947, a two-ton anchor fragment was flung nearly two miles inland and lodged in the parking area of the Pan American refinery.

There are four types of blast effects on the human body: overpressure (shock), fragmentation, impact, and heat. These effects are experienced by people who are in close proximity to an explosion, such as bomb disposal technicians, soldiers wearing body armor, deminers, and individuals with minimal protection. Overpressure refers to the abrupt and dramatic increase in ambient pressure that can cause harm to the internal organs and even death. In addition to sand, debris, and vegetation from the area surrounding the blast source, fragmentation can also include these elements. This occurs frequently in anti-personnel mine explosions. The projection of materials provides a possibly fatal risk due to soft tissue wounds, infections, and internal organ damage. When the overpressure wave strikes the body, it is capable of inducing explosive levels of blast-induced acceleration. Injuries sustained may range from minor to fatal. After being set in motion by the force of the blast, deceleration injuries can occur when a person strikes directly against a hard surface or obstruction. Lastly, the exploding fireball and incendiary substances directed upon the body can cause injury and death. Depending on the charge, proximity, and other circumstances, personal protective equipment such as a bomb suit or demining ensemble, as well as helmets, visors, and foot protection, can significantly lessen the four impacts.

The distinction between civilian and military bombs is routinely made by experts. The latter are almost invariably mass-produced, standard-design, standard-component weapons intended for use in conventional explosive devices. IEDs are split into three types based on their size and method of delivery. IEDs of type 76 are hand-carried parcel or suitcase bombs, type 80 are suicide vests worn by bombers, and type 3 devices are vehicles filled with explosives to act as large-scale stationary or self-propelled bombs, often known as VBIEDs (vehicle-borne IEDs).

Typically, improvised explosive materials are unstable and susceptible to spontaneous, inadvertent explosion triggered by a variety of environmental conditions, including collision, friction, and electric shock. A remote-controlled or unstable gadget can be triggered by even the slightest motion, temperature change, or adjacent use of cellphones or radios. Any connection between unqualified personnel and explosive materials or devices poses a grave and immediate risk of death or serious injury. The safest response to discovering an object that may be an explosive device is to go as far away as possible.

Atomic bombs are based on the nuclear fission theory, which states that when a huge atom divides, it releases a tremendous amount of energy. Thermonuclear weapons, also known colloquially as hydrogen bombs, utilise the energy from an initial fission explosion to build a more powerful fusion explosion.

The phrase dirty bomb refers to a device that depends on a relatively modest explosive yield to disperse hazardous materials across a wide region. Dirty bombs, which are most frequently connected with radiological or chemical agents, aim to kill or injure and then prohibit access to a polluted region until a complete clean-up is conducted. In metropolitan environments, this cleanup may take a considerable amount of time, rendering the contaminated zone uninhabitable in the interim.

Typically, the destructive force of massive bombs is measured in kilotons (kt) or megatons (Mt) of TNT (Mt). The two atomic bombs detonated by the United States on Hiroshima and Nagasaki were the most powerful ever used in battle, while the Tsar Bomba was the most powerful ever tested. Russian Father of All Bombs (officially Aviation Thermobaric Bomb of Increased Power (ATBIP)) is the most powerful non-nuclear bomb, followed by the United States Air Force's MOAB (officially Massive Ordnance Air Blast, or more commonly known as the Mother of All Bombs).

Listed below are five distinct types of bombs based on the primary explosive mechanism they deploy.

It is possible to make relatively tiny explosions by pressurizing a container until its catastrophic failure, such as using a dry ice bomb. Technically, these devices cannot be categorized as bombs according to the definition stated at the beginning of this page. However, these devices' explosions can cause property damage, bodily harm, and even death. When exposed to a spark or flame, flammable liquids, gases, and gas mixes distributed in these explosions may also ignite.

The earliest and simplest explosives store energy as a low explosion. A low explosive example is black powder. Low explosives are often composed of an oxidizing salt, such as potassium nitrate (saltpeter), and a solid fuel, such as charcoal or aluminum powder. When these substances are ignited, they produce hot gas. This deflagration occurs too slowly under normal conditions to generate a considerable pressure wave; therefore, low explosives must be employed in huge amounts or contained within a container with a high burst pressure in order to be effective as a bomb.

A high explosive bomb is one that uses a process known as detonation to rapidly transform a molecule with initially high energy into one with very low energy. Detonation differs from deflagration in that the chemical reaction propagates faster than the speed of sound (sometimes many times faster) in the form of a powerful shock wave. Therefore, confinement does not greatly increase the pressure wave produced by a high explosive because detonation occurs so rapidly that the ensuing plasma does not expand significantly before all of the explosive material has reacted. This has resulted in the creation of plastic explosives. Some high explosive bombs still employ a casing, but for the purpose of fragmentation. The majority of high explosive bombs consist of an insensitive secondary explosive that requires a blasting cap carrying a more sensitive primary explosive to ignite.

A thermobaric bomb is a form of explosive that uses oxygen from the surrounding air to produce a strong, high-temperature explosion; in fact, the blast wave produced by such a weapon has a substantially longer duration than that of a standard condensed explosive. The fuel-air bomb is among the most well-known thermobaric weapons.

Atomic bombs of the nuclear fission variety exploit the energy present in extremely massive atomic nuclei, such as U-235 or Pu-239. In order to rapidly release this energy, a portion of the fissile material must be exposed to a neutron source and rapidly compacted. If consolidation happens slowly, the material is dispersed by repulsive forces before a substantial explosion can occur. Rapid consolidation can trigger a chain reaction that can multiply and amplify by several orders of magnitude within microseconds under the correct conditions. A nuclear fission bomb may release tens of thousands of times more energy than a chemical bomb of the same mass.

A thermonuclear weapon is a type of nuclear bomb that generates energy through the fission and fusion of deuterium and tritium's light atomic nuclei. A thermonuclear explosion is triggered by the detonation of a fission-type nuclear bomb encased within a substance containing high concentrations of deuterium and tritium in this type of bomb. By increasing the duration and intensity of the reaction via inertial confinement and neutron reflection, a weapon's yield is typically augmented using a tamper. Fusion bomb yields can be arbitrarily high, making them hundreds or thousands of times more potent than fission bomb yields.

A hypothetical pure fusion weapon is a nuclear weapon that does not require an initial fission stage to initiate a fusion reaction.

Antimatter bombs are theoretically feasible, but antimatter is extremely expensive to generate and difficult to store safely.

Designed to be dropped from a military aircraft (or any aircraft) and carried on hardpoints or in bomb bays.

Delay-action bomb — explodes after impact, as opposed to before or upon impact.

Dummy bomb — a bomb that has been rendered harmless by disabling all of its explosive components or by removing all of its explosive components.

Glide bomb - a bomb equipped with flight control surfaces that allow it to glide over relatively long distances to its target.

General-purpose bomb - an aerial weapon dropped for numerous objectives, and therefore built to