Toss bombing
Toss bombing (sometimes known as loft bombing, and by the
The purpose of toss bombing is to compensate for the gravity drop of the bomb in flight, and allow an aircraft to bomb a target without flying directly over it. This is to avoid overflying a heavily defended target, or to distance the attacking aircraft from the blast effects of a nuclear (or conventional) bomb.[1]
Bomb tactics
Pop-up
In pop-up bombing, the pilot approaches from low altitude in level flight, and on cues from the computer pulls up at the last moment to release the bomb. Release usually occurs between 20° and 75° above the horizontal, causing the bomb to be tossed upward and forward, much like an underarm throw of a ball.
Level toss
Although "pop-up" bombing is generally characterized by its low-level approach, the same technique of a toss starting from level flight can be used at any altitude when it is not desirable to overfly the target. Additional altitude at release gives the bomb additional time of flight and range, at the cost (in the case of unguided munitions) of accuracy due to windage and the increased effect of a slight deviation in flight path.
Dive toss
The Dive-toss delivery technique was the first "toss" bombing method developed after WWII at the US Navy's rocket development center at Inyokern, California in 1947 as a method to attack heavily defended targets without unduly endangering the attacking aircraft.[2] Although toss bombing might seem the direct opposite to dive bombing, where the plane pitches downward to aim at its target, toss bombing is often performed with a short dive before the bomber raises its nose and releases its bomb. This variant is known as "dive tossing". This gives both the bomb and aircraft extra momentum, thereby helping the aircraft regain altitude after the release, and also ensuring that airspeed at the calculated release point is still sufficient to get the bomb to the target.
Over-the-shoulder
A more dynamic variant of toss bombing, called over-the-shoulder bombing, or the LABS (Low Altitude Bombing System) maneuver (known to pilots as the "idiot's loop"), is a particular kind of loft bombing where the bomb is released past the
Author and retired USAF
The last red-roofed village flashes below me, and the target, a pyramid of white barrels, is just visible at the end of its run-in line. Five hundred knots. Switch down, button pressed. Timers begin their timing, circuits are alerted for the drop. Inch down to treetop altitude. I do not often fly at 500 knots on the deck, and it is apparent that I am moving quickly. The barrels inflate. I see that their white paint is flaking. And the pyramid streaks beneath me. Back on the stick smoothly firmly to read four G on the accelerometer and center the needles of the indicator that is only used in nuke weapon drops and center them and hold it there and I'll bet those computers are grinding their little hearts out and all I can see is sky in the windscreen hold the G's keep the needles centered there's the sun going beneath me and WHAM.
My airplane rolls hard to the right and tucks more tightly into her loop and strains ahead even though we are upside down. The Shape has released me more than I have released it. The little white barrels are now six thousand feet directly beneath my canopy. I have no way to tell if it was a good drop or not. That was decided back with the charts and graphs and the dividers and the angles. I kept the needles centered, the computers did their task automatically, and the Device is on its way.
Tactical use
Toss bombing is generally used by
To counter air defenses en route to the target, remaining at a low altitude for as long as possible allows the bomber to avoid radar and visual tracking and the launch envelope of older missile systems designed to be fired at targets overflying the missile site. However, a level pass at the target at low altitude will not only expose the aircraft to short-range defenses surrounding the target, but will place the aircraft in the bomb's blast radius. By executing a "pop-up" loft, on the other hand, the pilot releases the munition well outside the target area, out of range of air defenses. After release, the pilot can either dive back to low altitude or maintain the climb, in either case generally executing a sharp turn or "slice" away from the target. The blast produced by powerful munitions is thus (hopefully) avoided.
The value of toss-bombing was increased with the introduction of precision-guided munitions such as the
"Dive-tossing" is generally used at moderate altitude (to allow for the dive) when the target, for whatever reason, cannot be designated precisely by radar. A target for instance may present too small a signature to be visible on radar (such as the entrance to an underground bunker) or may be indistinguishable in a group of radar returns. The pilot can in this case use a special "boresight" mode that allows the pilot to designate a target by pointing his aircraft directly at it. For a target on the ground, this means entering a dive. Thus designated, the pilot can then begin a climb, lofting the bomb at the target from a distance and regaining lost altitude at the same time.
Technology
Due to the intense pilot workload involved with flying and entering the window of opportunity, some aircraft are equipped with a “Toss Bomb Computer” (in
While deployed in
The same computational solutions used in the LABS system are now incorporated into two of the major bombing modes (the computer-controlled CCRP and a dedicated visually oriented "Dive-Toss" mode) of the Fire Control Computer of modern strike fighters such as the
See also
References
- ^ Cochrane, Rexmond C. (1966). "The Radio Proximity Fuze". A History of the National Bureau of Standards (PDF). Measures For Progress. U.S. Dept of Commerce. p. 397.
- ^ "Smash Hits" Popular Mechanics, March 1947, p. 113, see texts p. 115.
- ISBN 0-16-002260-6, p. 138.
- ^ Ny Teknik: Svenskt bombsikte blev en världshit