Air Weapons: April 4, 2003

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One difference from the 1991 war is a new generation of air dropped and artillery anti-tank weapons. Iraq has seen the first used of smart cluster bombs using anti-tank weapons. In Afghanistan, the U.S. Air Force dropped about 700 of these "wind corrected munitions dispenser" (with inertial guidance that brings it to within 30-100 feet of the aim point) carrying anti-personnel bomblets. The new ones dropped in Iraq (CBU 105) are half ton bombs, each carrying 40 SADARM bomblets. Individual SADARMs have their own radar and heat sensor that searches for armored vehicles below and destroys them with a shaped charge warhead. The SADARMs from each CBU-105 cover an area of roughly 150 x 360 meters. The first use of the CBU-105 was on April 2nd, when a B-52 dropped six of them on a Iraqi army column moving south from Baghdad. 


 

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