Monday ‘splodeys

We know the GBU-57 Massive Ordinance Penetrator is a bunker buster you do NOT want to fall afoul of – 30,000 pounds of bananas explosive wrapped in a inch thick steel shell, it can penetrate far enough to ruin your day even if you think 200 feet is are far enough underground. But now it’s even cooler.

As part of the integration work, the service also conducted an important test of a new “smart fuze” for the MOP to help improve the weapon’s effectiveness, even when the exact depth and positioning of the buried target are not definitively known.  The War Zone

They also fixed the integration issues with using it on a B-2, kind of important when the B-2 is the only airframe certified to operationally drop one. Nice to have everything talking. And now they are testing a Large Penetrating Smart Fuze (LPSF) which has void sensing capability. Essentially as the bomb is penetration, this is a fuze that doesn’t light up the fun stuff till it senses a void – like the one in an underground bunker once it has penetrated the concrete. They are also testing similar fuzes on “smaller”2,000 and 5,000 pound bombs.

For those who still aren’t feeling it – this is about the same amount of explosive as FIFTEEN 16 inch naval shells in one. So literally more pop than an entire Iowa-class volley. Yowzas.

A different kind of weapon – the Navy says it has successfully tested a 60Kw laser system on the USS Preble,  the High Energy Laser with Integrated Optical Dazzler and Surveillance (HELIOS) against a drone. BTW, when a sufficiently high-powered laser hits something, the energy transfer works like typical kinetic energy weapon in that the target is subjected to an energy strike above its ability to stay assembled.

Lockheed Martin delivered the 60-plus-kilowatt laser to the Navy in August 2022, when it became the first tactical laser system to be installed in existing ships.  Navy Times

Think of the ordnance saved by having something like this on board versus all the planes, missiles, etc. we rely on now. Years behind schedule, but at least we are seeing some progress.

Last but not least, someone took a page out of the Israeli’s playbook. You know those fancy goggle VR players and drone operators wear?

Russian officials are investigating a plot that allegedly sent explosive-laden first-person view (FPV) goggles to drone units in the hope they would detonate, killing or injuring the operator.

“There are reports from military personnel of multiple cases of volunteers delivering mined FPV Skyzone Cobra goggles,” Razved Dozor claimed. “The goggles contain improvised explosive devices (IED) with 10-15 grams of plastic explosive. Detonation occurs when the goggles are turned on.”

The goggles were sent in humanitarian aid packages by unwitting volunteers, Razved Dozor noted.

I know, I shouldn’t laugh…but I did.

The fact that a sabotage attempt of this nature has occurred means that any electronics that troops interface with could be at risk of similar tampering. Having to physically disassemble every device that is needed to fuel a very hot war would drastically slow down supply chains. It also causes deep psychological effects on troops who now have to wonder if any item they pickup is similarly equipped.  The War Zone II

From the description in the article, it was fairly obvious the packaging and headsets had been tampered with,  and the explosives went off as soon as the headset were turned on. Crude, maybe, but  also sounds like a pretty clever PSYOPS  operation, with the added bonus that had a few kills been achieved, one suspects the drone operators would have been a bit rattled.

Category: Air Force, Navy, Russia