Glide bomb
A glide bomb or stand-off bomb is a
World War II-era glide bombs like the German Fritz X and Henschel Hs 293 pioneered the use of remote control systems, allowing the controlling aircraft to direct the bomb to a pinpoint target as a pioneering form of precision-guided munition. Modern systems are generally self-guided or semi-automated, using GPS or laser designators to hit their target.
The term "
Early efforts
German designs
World War I
In October 1914
It was planned to use the
World War II
Development
During World War II the first operational glide bombs were developed by the Germans as an anti-shipping weapon. Ships are typically very difficult to attack: a direct hit or an extremely near miss is needed to do any serious damage, hitting a target as small as a ship was difficult in this period. At first dive bombers were used with some success in this role, but their successes were countered by ever-increasing anti-aircraft defenses on the Royal Navy ships they were attacking. By 1941 accurate bombing was as difficult as ever, with the added problem of evading anti-aircraft fire.
The German solution was the development of a number of glide bombs employing
In addition it proved difficult to properly guide the bomb to impact as the angle of descent changed, and if the bomb was not aimed accurately so as to end up roughly right over the target, there was little that could be done at later stages to fix the problem. Nevertheless, the Fritz X proved useful with crews trained on its use. In test drops from 8,000 m (26,000 ft), experienced bomb aimers could place half the bombs within a 15 m (49 ft 3 in) radius and 90% within 30 m (98 ft 5 in).
Design work started as early as 1939, and a version of the guidance package mounted to standard 500 kg bombs was tested in September 1940. It was found that the bomb was unable to penetrate a ship's armor, so changes were made to fit an armor-piercing warhead before the system finally entered service in 1943. The basic A-1 model was the only one to be produced in any number, but developments included the B model with a custom armor-piercing warhead, and the C model with a conical warhead which was designed to hit the water short of the ship and then travel a short distance underwater to hit the ship below the waterline. The guidance system for the Hs 293 series was the same as the Fritz-X unpowered munition; it used a Funkgerät FuG 203 Kehl radio control transmitter with a single two-axis joystick in the deploying bomber, and an FuG 230 Straßburg receiver in the munition.
Operational use
Following the
A more widely employed weapon was the Henschel Hs 293, which included wings and a rocket motor to allow the bomb to glide some distance away from the launch aircraft. This weapon was designed for use against thinly armored but highly defended targets such as convoy merchantmen or their escorting warships. When launched, a small liquid-fueled rocket fired to speed the weapon up and get it out in front of the releasing aircraft, which was flown to approach the target just off to one side. The bomb then dropped close to the water and glided in parallel to the launch aircraft, with the bomb aimer adjusting the flight left or right. As long as the bomb was dropped at roughly the right range so it did not run out of altitude while gliding in, the system was easy to use, at least against slow-moving targets.
The Hs 293 was first used operationally in the
Allied countermeasures
Several defensive measures were implemented right away. Ships capable of maneuvering at high speed were instructed to make tight turns across the weapon's flight path in order to complicate the missile operator's efforts. Attacking aircraft were interdicted with air patrols and heavy-caliber
American, British and Canadian scientists also developed sophisticated radio jammers to disrupt the guidance signal. Ultimately nine different jamming systems were deployed in the European theater against these weapons. While early models proved inadequate, by the time the Allies were preparing for the invasion of France in 1944 more capable systems were deployed, and the success rate of guided weapons declined considerably. Even more important to the defeat of the weapons was Allied command of the airspace and the interception of incoming bombers by Allied fighter aircraft.
The Hs 293 was also used in August 1944 to attack bridges over the
The Germans also experimented with television guidance systems on the Hs 293D models. The use was problematic – as the bomb approaches the target, even tiny amounts of control input would cause the target to jump around the TV display, so much of the difficulty was in developing control systems that would become progressively less sensitive as the pilot required. A wire-guided version was also developed, but this Hs 293B variant was never deployed.
UK program
In 1939 Sir Dennistoun Burney and Nevil Shute Norway, worked together on an air-launched gliding torpedo, the "Toraplane", and a gliding bomb, "Doravane". Despite much work and many trials the Toraplane could not be launched with repeatable accuracy and it was abandoned in 1942.
US designs
The
The first to be used operationally was the
More advanced models in the GB series included the
Post-WWII developments
After the war, the increasing sophistication of electronics allowed these systems to be developed as practical devices; from the 1960s air forces deployed a number of such systems, including the USAF's
In the anti-ship role, direct attack from an aircraft even at long range became more dangerous due to the deployment of anti-aircraft missiles on ships. Weapons such as the Bat had ranges too short to keep the attacking aircraft out of range, especially in a force provided with air cover. This was addressed with the introduction of small jet engines that greatly extended the range, producing the
Similarly, the need to attack well-defended targets such as airbases and military command posts led to the development of newer generations of glide bombs. European air forces use a glide package with a
A list of notable glide bombs are as follows:
- AGM-154 Joint Standoff Weapon is an American glide bomb introduced in 1998.
- GBU-44/B Viper Strike is an American glide bomb.
- HOPE/HOSBO are a family of glide bombs under development by German defence firm Diehl Defence.
- H-2 SOW, H-4 SOW, Takbir and GIDS REK are glide bombs developed by Pakistan. The H-4 may be a copy or a Pakistani variant of the Denel Raptor II glide bomb.[7][8][9]
- DRDO Glide Bombs are developed by India. It has a winged (Gaurav) and non-winged (Gautham). These are developed by DRDO and manufactured by Adani Defence & Aerospace.
- GBU-53/B developed by Raytheon.
- Glide bombs adapted from existing Su-35 jets to launch glide bombs from within Russian-held territory beyond the range of Ukrainian air defenses.[2]
- cluster bomb PBK-500U Drel.[10]
See also
- Blue Boar
- Small Diameter Bomb(SDB)
- Bigeye bomb
- JDAM
- Paveway
- Al-Tariq
- Takbir
- H-4 SOW
- AGM-62 Walleye
- DRDO Glide Bombs
References
- ISBN 9780850451634.
- ^ a b Gettleman, Jeffrey; Schmitt, Eric (May 25, 2023). "Russia's Old Bombs Elude Ukraine's Modern Defenses". The New York Times. Archived from the original on June 15, 2023. Retrieved July 3, 2023.
- ISBN 978-0-7864-5189-0.
- ^ Zeitschrift für Flugwissenschaften. 5–6: 135–36. 1957–58.
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(help)[dubious ] - ISBN 978-0-679-45742-8.
- inertial guidance for directional control after release. This consisted of a series of gyroscopes driven by a battery. ...twelve foot wingspan... almost twelve feet long... The glide ratio of these bombs was an amazing five to one. ...many of the batteries failed to hold [their] charge... The date was May 28, 1944, not the 25th as Martin Caidinreports in his book, "The Forts." This same mistake appears in Polmer and Allen's encyclopedia, "World War II. America at War, 1941–1945."
- ^ Fisher Jr., Richard (29 October 2004). "Report On the International Defense Exhibition and Seminar (IDEAS)". International Assessment and Strategy Center (IASC). Archived from the original on 5 July 2014. Retrieved 26 June 2009.
- ^ Ansari, Usman. "The JF-17 Thunder: A hefty punch at an affordable price". Archived from the original on 17 July 2011.
- ^ "South African missiles/rockets/PGM's". 9 January 2014. Retrieved 3 December 2019.
Pakistan is fairly open about them having it, see one of their squadron's paintings below clearly depicting Raptor II being launched from one of their Mirages.
- ^ "Army 2016: Russia to complete trials of cluster bomb | Jane's 360". Archived from the original on September 7, 2017. Retrieved September 6, 2017.