The E48 particulate bomb was a U.S. biological sub-munition designed during the 1950s for use with the E96 cluster bomb.

History

In February 1950 a

U.S. Army The United States Army (USA) is the land service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army of the United States in the U.S. Constitution.Article II, section 2, cl ...

report prepared by William Creasy, a colonel within the U.S. bio-weapons program, noted that the E48 particulate bomb was in its final stages of development. Creasy also reported that the E48 had been successfully tested in three field trials.Endicott, Stephen and Hagerman, Edward. ''The United States and Biological Warfare: Secrets from the Early Cold War and Korea'',
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, Indiana University Press, 1998, pp. 67-68, ().

Specifications

The E48 particulate bomb was a

sub-munition 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 vehicl ...

meant to be clustered in the E38 type cluster adapter, together the E48 and E38 constituted the E96 cluster bomb. In practice, the E96 and its payload of E48 sub-munitions was intended to be air-dropped from . The weapon could generate an

elliptical Elliptical may mean: * having the shape of an ellipse, or more broadly, any oval shape ** in botany, having an elliptic leaf shape ** of aircraft wings, having an elliptical planform * characterised by ellipsis (the omission of words), or by conc ...

aerosol agent cloud from this altitude that had major axes of . Some of the agents considered for use with the E48 included, '' B. suis'',

anthrax Anthrax is an infection caused by the bacterium ''Bacillus anthracis''. It can occur in four forms: skin, lungs, intestinal, and injection. Symptom onset occurs between one day and more than two months after the infection is contracted. The sk ...

, and botulin.Whitby, Simon. ''Biological Warfare Against Crops'',
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, Macmillan, 2002, pp. 106-07, ().

Tests involving the E48

The E48 sub-munition was utilized in tests at

Dugway Proving Ground Dugway Proving Ground (DPG) is a U.S. Army facility established in 1942 to test biological and chemical weapons, located about southwest of Salt Lake City, Utah, United States, and south of the Utah Test and Training Range. Location Dugway P ...

in July and August 1950. The July tests released ''

Bacillus globigii ''Bacillus'' (Latin "stick") is a genus of Gram-positive, rod-shaped bacteria, a member of the phylum ''Bacillota'', with 266 named species. The term is also used to describe the shape (rod) of other so-shaped bacteria; and the plural ''Bacilli ...

'' from the E48 using air-dropped cluster bombs. The August tests utilized the bacteria ''

Serratia marcescens ''Serratia marcescens'' () is a species of rod-shaped, Gram-negative bacteria in the family Yersiniaceae. It is a facultative anaerobe and an opportunistic pathogen in humans. It was discovered in 1819 by Bartolomeo Bizio in Padua, Italy.Serra ...

'', and involved E48s which dispersed the agent statically, from the ground.Subcommittee on Zinc Cadmium Sulfide, U.S. National Research Council. ''Toxicologic Assessment of the Army's Zinc Cadmium Sulfide Dispersion'',
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, National Academies Press, 1997, pp. 285-88, ().

References

{{U.S. biological weapons Biological weapon delivery systems Submunitions Cold War aerial bombs of the United States