Russians blew something big

[Quintilian]

Hi folks....
Just checked out the morning news here in Norway... Turns out that the Russians tested the worlds largest conventional bomb today...
It was dropped by a tu-160 (marvellous a/c btw), weighed 7 tons and has a explosion force equivalent to 44 tons of TNT. The blast radius is said to be 300m.
It would be nice if someone could answer the following questions:
What is the bomb named and what fuel is used? The news agency just said that it is a "vacuum bomb" and utilizes fuel specified for a/c's. Guess it is not Jet A.... Could it be liquid hydrogen, stored by the use of cryogenics? (Used to fuel the tu-155/156 prototype jets)
Cheers
TH


PS: Wiki entry on Vacuum-bombs...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vacuum_bomb

[kiwi chick]

Sorry, but I'm still hung up on the

Turns out that the Russians tested the worlds largest conventional bomb today...

Am I the only one that raised an eyebrow in concern?! :sad:

[Ghostflyer]

So...Putin has to leave office shortly and so far this summer he has:

Flexed his muscles - literally
Started Bear incursions
Blown up a big bomb.

The Russian people allegedly love him so can anyone see a 'benevolent coup' coming?

[coolblackcat]

Suspicious, yes, but I'm personally not too concerned. I think that Putin is just trying to attract attention with the Bear flights. Something like this bomb test doesn't surprise me in the least.

This doesn't mean, in any way, that the UK government should lower their guard. I think now is a good time for the MI6 to do some research.

What really concerns me is that I have found no online news pages with an article about this bomb test (except for bigbluecar's link), the same way that I find no trace of some Middle East affairs or incidents in the Spanish news. Or information is changed in many cases; the Spanish news says that 18 died in the Pakistan bombs, not 16.

[GeeRam]

It was dropped by a tu-160 (marvellous a/c btw), weighed 7 tons and has a explosion force equivalent to 44 tons of TNT.

Pressumably this is largest in explosive force rather than weight...?

As the WW2 Grand Slam was 22,000lbs (10 Tons)......and reqd a Lanc to carry it..........:p

[teeteringhead]

The Wiki reference to "dust explosions" is interesting....

...... I recall many years ago at school a mad chemistry master (weren't they all) destroying an oil can with an explosion ....... fuelled by flour!

Wish I could remember the details........;)

[Not_a_boffin]

Chemical reactions work on surface area, the more surface area you get (eg dust, lots of particles), the more energetic the reaction.

I'm still disappointed that the thread title doesn't refer to a couple of Russian chicks in a training film.....

[PTT]

What really concerns me is that I have found no online news pages with an article about this bomb test (except for bigbluecar's link),
Look harder.
www.guardian.co.uk/russia/article/0,,2167175,00.html
;)

[ORAC]

Why not watch the movie (http://link.brightcove.com/services/link/bcpid1137942531/bclid1155327332/bctid1166648867) :cool:

[coolblackcat]

TTv's good, never came across it so far... easier than reading :P

[Lima Juliet]

300m radius??? I'm no QWI but the blast/frag radius must be bigger than that :confused: In my dim and distant past I seem to remember 1,000lbers having a frag range of up to 1mile behind the aircraft and up to 2,000ft if you were trying to put an AIM-9G up the tail pipe of a mud-mover :8

If I were flying behind a Blackjack and they dropped one of those in my face I would certainly give it more that 300m to get out of the way!!! :eek:

Looking at the Telegraph movie I would guess it would be at least 3 times that - close to a Kilometer would be a closer estimate. :ooh:

Anyone else care to speculate?

LJ

[ScottyDoo]

Sorry, but I'm still hung up on the

Am I the only one that raised an eyebrow in concern?!


Why are you so hung up on the MOABski and not their nukes? At least they need to fly the thing to you to drop it on you.

Anyway you can relax in the knowledge the "I-wouldn't-crawl-over-them-to-get-to-you" theory means New Zillund is safe behind Aussie.... :ok:

[harrogate]

"It allows them to confront terrorism in any region".

Who'd live in Chechnya, eh?

[Razor61]

The video shows a Blackjack opening its bomb bay but look at the way the bomb was pushed out of a ramp........... An-12 or similar i reckon!

[takeofforblowup]

Might be a little more interestung than waving to the 'bears' if one of these show up !!!!???**

[F34NZ]

Scotty doo : NZ might be safe behind Oz but just to make sure the defence chiefs have sent Putin a photog of Helen Clark and a simple message : Drop anything on us and we drop her on you.

[Safeware]

Teets,

Didn't use flour, but lycopodium (sp?) powder. Seem to remember it as having a tube coming out of the side with some poweder in it, a tealight candle in the bottom of the tin, shut tin lid then blow powder from tube into tin = BOOM. The experiment was preceeded by a video of a custard powder silo exploding. All about the energy in the powder and the powder/air mix.

But we digress :)

sw

[teeteringhead]

Sounds right Safeware..

... I certainly remember tubes funnels and candles - but I'm sure it was flour, but I guess any small particulate powder would work....

[Like-minded]

Thoroughly unnecessary device. America has had the Daisy Cutter since the Vietnam War, and found them more useful for killing trees than people (to form circular LZs). In the Afghan 2001 war, a grand total of.... 2 was used.

FAE bombs should be small, precision guided and have glide features, able to be arrayed in bomb bays and deliver lung crushing death through the windows of buildings and cave mouths.

Anything else is just showing off. In the noveau riche way.

[Lima Juliet]

Grand Slam is half the size of this puppy:

http://www.members.aol.com/nukeinfo2/t12onnose.jpg

The US T-12 was a 42,000lb bomb (this one weighed 43,600lbs) designed to be carried by the B-36 bomber - in fact it could carry two!!! First dropped in 1949. The explosive alone weighed 17,600lbs. Only canned because of ground penetrating nukes that weighed a fraction of this monster for the same effect (and little fallout if the blast didn't make the surface!).

Nerd Alert...

[Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaargh!]

I bet that guy's thinking "Thank god it missed me"

[XV277]

Don't the Septics have a 'Son of MOAB' that has an equivalent yield?

[Double Zero]

I think the words missing from the Russian boast are ' Precision ' & ' Guided ' - as previously stated it might work in the provinces, but the delivery aircraft would get a dusty response if trying it on NATO...

[BEagle]

I thought you were referring to this:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/6996671.stm

'Russia blasts gerbils into space'

Did someone cry "Armageddon"?*













*for an explanation, see http://forums.gumtree.com/about2335.html&highlight (http://forums.gumtree.com/about2335.html&highlight)= or similar....:eek:

[Double Zero]

I thought that referred to Richard Gere after a Vindaloo ?