The CBU-107 Passive Attack Weapon is an air-dropped

guided bomb A guided bomb (also known as a smart bomb, guided bomb unit, or GBU) is a precision-guided munition designed to achieve a smaller circular error probable (CEP). The creation of precision-guided munitions resulted in the retroactive renaming of ...

containing metal penetrator rods of various sizes. It was designed to attack targets where an explosive effect may be undesirable, such as

fuel A fuel is any material that can be made to react with other substances so that it releases energy as thermal energy or to be used for work. The concept was originally applied solely to those materials capable of releasing chemical energy but ...

storage tank Storage tanks are containers that hold liquids, compressed gases (gas tank; or in U.S.A "pressure vessel", which is not typically labeled or regulated as a storage tank) or mediums used for the short- or long-term storage of heat or cold. The t ...

s or chemical weapon

stockpile A stockpile is a pile or storage location for bulk materials, forming part of the bulk material handling process. Stockpiles are used in many different areas, such as in a port, refinery or manufacturing facility. The stockpile is normally cre ...

sAir Force Developed Bombs Capable of Destroying Syria’s Chemical Weapons
- Defensetech.org, 30 August 2013 in

civilian Civilians under international humanitarian law are "persons who are not members of the armed forces" and they are not "combatants if they carry arms openly and respect the laws and customs of war". It is slightly different from a non-combatant, b ...

areas.

Overview

The weapon consists of a

Wind Corrected Munitions Dispenser The Wind Corrected Munitions Dispenser or WCMD system is a US tail kit produced by Lockheed Martin for use with the Tactical Munitions Dispenser family of cluster bombs to convert them to precision-guided munitions. In 1997 the United States Air F ...

-equipped SUU-66/B Tactical Munitions Dispenser containing 3,750 non-explosive

steel Steel is an alloy made up of iron with added carbon to improve its strength and fracture resistance compared to other forms of iron. Many other elements may be present or added. Stainless steels that are corrosion- and oxidation-resistant ty ...

and

tungsten Tungsten, or wolfram, is a chemical element with the symbol W and atomic number 74. Tungsten is a rare metal found naturally on Earth almost exclusively as compounds with other elements. It was identified as a new element in 1781 and first isolat ...

penetrator rods of various sizes. There is no other version of the CBU-107. The weapon is notable for the speed with which it was developed and fielded, a total of 98 days (with full production occurring by March 9th, 2003). This speed was required by an urgent operation and earned the development team several awards. The CBU-107 is designed to perform effects based warfare, where a strategically valuable battlefield “effect” is achieved without having to damage large portions of the infrastructure in the attacked area. The penetrating rods range in size from several inches to over a foot long and can disable targets such as fuel tanks, antennas, or even a helicopter without necessarily harming nearby people. The effect of a PAW rod impacting is similar to that of an

armor-piercing fin-stabilized discarding sabot Armour-piercing fin-stabilized discarding sabot (APFSDS), long dart penetrator, or simply dart ammunition, is a type of kinetic energy penetrator ammunition used to attack modern vehicle armour. As an armament for main battle tanks, it succeeds A ...

penetrator fired from a tank gun; if they are released from a high enough altitude to reach terminal velocity, they release a large amount of heat in a confined area extremely fast that vaporizes and melts through the small area.

Combat history

The CBU-107 was first used in an attack on the Iraqi Ministry of Information on March 28, 2003, during the

2003 invasion of Iraq The 2003 invasion of Iraq was a United States-led invasion of the Republic of Iraq and the first stage of the Iraq War. The invasion phase began on 19 March 2003 (air) and 20 March 2003 (ground) and lasted just over one month, including 26 ...

. The targets were two antenna arrays, which were both destroyed with little damage to the MOI or adjacent buildings.

Specifications

* Guidance:

INS INS or Ins or ''variant'', may refer to: Places * Ins, Switzerland, a municipality * Creech Air Force Base (IATA airport code INS) * Indonesia, ITF and UNDP code INS Biology *'' Ins'', a New World genus of bee flies * INS, the gene for the insul ...

* Payload: ** 350 35.56 cm (14-inch) tungsten rods ** 1,000 17.8 cm (7-inch) tungsten rods ** 2,400 5.1 cm (2-inch) steel rods

References

External links

Lockheed Martin WCMD (Wind Corrected Munitions Dispenser) - Designation Systems
Guided bombs of the United States Cluster munition Military equipment introduced in the 2000s {{Bomb-stub

Overview

Combat history

Specifications

See also

References

External links