Originally Posted by
In Tor Wot
From what I remember it was more to do with weapon construction. UK 1000lb bombs were (are still) forged and are swaged from a single billet. They are capable of penetrating further than the US Mk 80 series which are cast - better for fragmentation but poorer penetration capabilities.
On a number of missions the Buffs used the UK 1000lb as an airfield denial weapon as it was capable of penetrating the operating surfaces and generating greater heave.
I do not know about the current generation of UK 1000lb bombs but we used to carry either cast or forged. For Confrontation the mission was for airburst; we carried 18 x 1000lb Cast and 3 x 1000lb Forged with delay fuses.
As for the US/B52 argument, ex-V-Force Nav Rads at Finningley were asked for the 90-way interval settings used by the V-Force. IIRC the settings were 0.18, 0.24, 0.30, 0.45 seconds. At 480kts the 0.30 would have given a spacing of 90 yards between bombs. At 0.18 I believe there was a risk of jostle and impact so our minimum interval was 0.24 seconds.
We did not know why we were asked this except we thought it was because the US was 'borrowing' 90-way kit or they had not got their own information. That they were using, or planned to use, British bombs would make sense.
PS, the guy who took the message was, I believe, M*rv *stl*