The BLU-82B/C-130 weapon system, known under program "Commando Vault" and nicknamed " Daisy Cutter" in

Vietnam Vietnam or Viet Nam ( vi, Việt Nam, ), officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam,., group="n" is a country in Southeast Asia, at the eastern edge of mainland Southeast Asia, with an area of and population of 96 million, making ...

for its ability to flatten a section of forest into a helicopter landing zone, is an American conventional bomb, delivered from either a

C-130 The Lockheed C-130 Hercules is an American four-engine turboprop military transport aircraft designed and built by Lockheed (now Lockheed Martin). Capable of using unprepared runways for takeoffs and landings, the C-130 was originally desi ...

or MC-130 transport aircraft or a CH-54 heavy-lift "Skycrane" helicopter from the 1st Air Cavalry. A total of 225 were constructed. It was successfully used during military operations in

, the Gulf War and

Afghanistan Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan,; prs, امارت اسلامی افغانستان is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. Referred to as the Heart of Asia, it is borde ...

. The BLU-82 was retired in 2008 and replaced with the more powerful GBU-43/B MOAB.

Overview

The designation "BLU" stands for Bomb Live Unit, as opposed to "BDU" (Bomb Dummy Units) used for practice. Originally designed to create an instant clearing in the jungles of Vietnam, the BLU-82B/C-130 was test-dropped there from a CH-54 Tarhe "Flying crane" helicopter. Later it was used in Afghanistan as an

anti-personnel An anti-personnel weapon is a weapon primarily used to maim or kill infantry and other personnel not behind armor, as opposed to attacking structures or vehicles, or hunting game. The development of defensive fortification and combat vehicles ...

weapon and as an intimidation weapon because of its very large blast radius (variously reported as 300 to 900 feet/100 to 300 meters) combined with a visible flash and audible sound at long distances. It is one of the largest conventional weapons ever used, outweighed only by a few earthquake bombs, thermobaric bombs, and demolition ( bunker buster) bombs. Some of these include the Grand Slam and T12 earthquake bombs of late World War II, and more currently, the

Russian Air Force "Air March" , mascot = , anniversaries = 12 August , equipment = , equipment_label = , battles = , decorations = , batt ...

FOAB and USAF

GBU-43/B Massive Ordnance Air Blast bomb The GBU-43/B Massive Ordnance Air Blast (MOAB , colloquially known as the "Mother of All Bombs") is a large-yield bomb, developed for the United States military by Albert L. Weimorts, Jr. of the Air Force Research Laboratory. It was first tes ...

, and the Massive Ordnance Penetrator.

Specifications

The BLU-82 uses ammonium nitrate and

aluminum Aluminium (aluminum in American and Canadian English) is a chemical element with the symbol Al and atomic number 13. Aluminium has a density lower than those of other common metals, at approximately one third that of steel. It ha ...

(cf. '' ammonal''). The warhead contains of low-cost GSX

slurry A slurry is a mixture of denser solids suspended in liquid, usually water. The most common use of slurry is as a means of transporting solids or separating minerals, the liquid being a carrier that is pumped on a device such as a centrifugal p ...

( ammonium nitrate, aluminum powder and

polystyrene Polystyrene (PS) is a synthetic polymer made from monomers of the Aromatic hydrocarbon, aromatic hydrocarbon styrene. Polystyrene can be solid or foamed. General-purpose polystyrene is clear, hard, and brittle. It is an inexpensive resin pe ...

). The ''Daisy Cutter'' has sometimes been incorrectly reported as a fuel-air explosive device (FAE). FAE devices consist of a flammable liquid, gas, or powder and a dispersing mechanism, and take their

oxidizer An oxidizing agent (also known as an oxidant, oxidizer, electron recipient, or electron acceptor) is a substance in a redox chemical reaction that gains or " accepts"/"receives" an electron from a (called the , , or ). In other words, an oxi ...

s from the oxygen in the air. FAEs generally run between 500 and 2,000 pounds (225 and 900 kg). Making an FAE the size of a Daisy Cutter would be difficult because the correct uniform mixture of the flammable agent with the ambient air would be difficult to maintain if the agent were so widely dispersed. A conventional

explosive An explosive (or explosive material) is a reactive substance that contains a great amount of potential energy that can produce an explosion if released suddenly, usually accompanied by the production of light, heat, sound, and pressure. An expl ...

is much more reliable in that regard, particularly if there is significant wind or thermal gradient. The BLU-82 produces an overpressure of near ground zero, tapering off as distance increases. It is detonated just above ground by a

fuze In military munitions, a fuze (sometimes fuse) is the part of the device that initiates function. In some applications, such as torpedoes, a fuze may be identified by function as the exploder. The relative complexity of even the earliest fuze ...

extender. This results in a maximum destruction at ground level without digging a crater.

Guidance

This system depends upon the accurate positioning of the aircraft by either a fixed ground

radar Radar is a detection system that uses radio waves to determine the distance (''ranging''), angle, and radial velocity of objects relative to the site. It can be used to detect aircraft, Marine radar, ships, spacecraft, guided missiles, motor v ...

or on-board navigation equipment. The ground radar controller, or aircrew navigator if applicable, is responsible for positioning the aircraft prior to final countdown and release. Primary aircrew considerations include accurate ballistic and wind computations provided by the navigator, and precision instrument flying with strict adherence to controller instructions. Due to its extremely powerful blast effects, the minimum safe altitude for releasing this weapon is above ground level (AGL).

Operations

The BLU-82 was originally designed to clear helicopter landing zones and

artillery Artillery is a class of heavy military ranged weapons that launch munitions far beyond the range and power of infantry firearms. Early artillery development focused on the ability to breach defensive walls and fortifications during si ...

emplacements in Vietnam. The first use of a BLU-82 occurred on 22 March 1970, when one was dropped north of Long Tieng,

Laos Laos (, ''Lāo'' )), officially the Lao People's Democratic Republic ( Lao: ສາທາລະນະລັດ ປະຊາທິປະໄຕ ປະຊາຊົນລາວ, French: République démocratique populaire lao), is a socialist s ...

during

Campaign 139 Campaign 139 (14 September 1969–25 April 1970) was a major military offensive of the People's Army of Vietnam, launched against its Royalist enemies during the Laotian Civil War. Larger than previous invading forces, Campaign 139 was also a c ...

. During Operation Lam Son 719 in 1971 25 BLU-82 bombs were dropped on NVA and Pathet Lao forces in

. They were dropped by U.S. C-130 aircraft not only to clear landing zones, but also to strike against specific targets such as warehouses, vehicle parks, and enemy troop concentrations. South Vietnamese VNAF aircraft dropped BLU-82 bombs on NVA positions in desperation to support ARVN troops in the Battle of Xuân Lộc in the last days of the Vietnam War. During the ''Mayaguez'' incident, a Lockheed MC-130 dropped one BLU-82 to assist U.S. Marine forces attempting to extract themselves from

Koh Tang Koh Tang ( km, កោះតាង), also known as Tang Island, is the biggest of a group of Cambodian islands off the coast of Sihanoukville Province in the Gulf of Thailand. The island is situated approximately off the southwest coast of Cambod ...

island. Eleven BLU-82Bs were palletized and dropped in five night missions during the 1991

Gulf War The Gulf War was a 1990–1991 armed campaign waged by a 35-country military coalition in response to the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait. Spearheaded by the United States, the coalition's efforts against Iraq were carried out in two key phases: ...

, all from

Special Operations Special operations (S.O.) are military activities conducted, according to NATO, by "specially designated, organized, selected, trained, and equipped forces using unconventional techniques and modes of employment". Special operations may include ...

MC-130 Combat Talons.Pike, John.
BLU-82B
" ''Federation of American Scientists,'' 24 March 2004. The initial drop tested the ability of the bomb to clear or breach mine fields; however, no reliable assessments of mine clearing effectiveness are publicly available. Later, bombs were dropped as much for their psychological effect as for their anti-personnel effects. Due to the size of the conventional blast, a British SAS unit that witnessed the explosion mistakenly assumed the U.S. had used a nuclear weapon and radioed back to their headquarters exclaiming, "Sir, the blokes have just nuked Kuwait!". The U.S. Air Force dropped several BLU-82s during the campaign to destroy Taliban and

al-Qaeda Al-Qaeda (; , ) is an Islamic extremist organization composed of Salafist jihadists. Its members are mostly composed of Arabs, but also include other peoples. Al-Qaeda has mounted attacks on civilian and military targets in various countr ...

bases in Afghanistan to attack and demoralize personnel and to destroy cave complexes. American forces began using the bomb in November 2001 and again a month later during the Battle of Tora Bora. On 15 July 2008, airmen from the

Duke Field Duke Field , also known as Eglin AFB Auxiliary Field #3, is a military airport located three miles (5 km) south of the central business district of Crestview, in Okaloosa County, Florida, United States. History Duke Field was one of the f ...

711th Special Operations Squadron, 919th Special Operations Wing dropped the last operational BLU-82 at the

Utah Test and Training Range The Utah Test and Training Range (UTTR) is a Department of Defense military testing and training area located in Utah's West Desert, approximately west of Salt Lake City, Utah. UTTR is currently the largest contiguous block of over-land superson ...

.Nichols, Patrick (Captain, 919th Operations Group).
Duke Field Airmen Drop Last 15,000-Pound Bomb
" ''Air Force Link'' (U.S. Air Force), 21 July 2008. Retrieved 18 March 2016

References

External links