CBU-87

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article (or section) may need to be wikified to meet Wikipedia's quality standards.
Please help improve this article, especially its section layout, and relevant internal links. (help)
This article has been tagged since March 2007.

This article may require cleanup to meet Wikipedia's quality standards.
Please discuss this issue on the talk page or replace this tag with a more specific message.
This article has been tagged since March 2007.

CBU-87

The CBU-87 combined effect munitions cluster bomb is a bomb used by the United States Air force. It was developed by Aerojet General/Honeywell. In 1986 the bomb was introduced to replace the earlier cluster bombs used in the Vietnam War. A cluster bomb is a bomb that when dropped, makes many little explosions covering a larger area then a typical bomb would cover. The bomb is not necessarily used for precision, but for destroying multiple targets at once or making sure something gets hit along with the outer perimeter of the target getting hit as well. The list price is set at $14,000 per bomb. The bomb is designed to be dropped by plane at any altitude and any air speed. It is a free falling bomb and relies on the aircraft to aim it before it drops. Once it is dropped, it needs no farther instruction. The bomb can be dropped by a variety of modern day aircraft used today. It is 92 inches long and 15.6 inches in diameter. The whole bomb weighs 950 pounds. Inside the bomb, there are mini bombs that deploy before it hits the ground. Each bomb contains 202 armor piecing shaped charged bomblets. The dub rate for each bomb in about 5%. This means that of the 202 bomblets dropped, about 10 will not explode on impact. The bomblets are stored in a SUU-65B canister. While descending in the air, the bomb starts off spinning. After it gets to a certain altitude, the bomb with break open and drop mini bombs. When the bombs hit the ground, it will cover a large area and have separate explosions within that area. The CBU-87 can be adjusted so it can cover a wider area of land, or a small area. Depending on the rate of spin and the altitude at which the bomb opens, it can cover an area between 800x400 feet and 70x70 feet. Decreasing these adjustments causes a lower surface area to be hit. Increasing them allows a wider surface area to be hit. There are 6 speeds that can adjust the bombs rate of spin. The CBU-87 is fused with a FZU-39/B proximity sensor. The sensor has 12 time selections which tell when the bomb is to be dispensed and throw out the sub munitions. When the bomb opens up while falling, it breaks into three pieces not, not including the bomblets, and the bomblets fall out. The BLU-97/B is the sub munitions in the CBU-87. When the canister opens and the bomblets are released. When the bomblets fall, they are separate from the main bomb and independently free fall to the ground. They contain an inflatable bag on the top of them, which slows them down and spreads them out. As the bomblets descend, they experience g-forces. Once they reach a minimum of 6 Gs, they arm themselves. As the bomblets fall, they are also spinning as well. Arming takes about 2.6 seconds. They have a charge attached to the front of them that is effective against hard and soft targets. It is very effective against and mainly used for anti personnel, anti material, shaped charge fragmentations and anti armory.