What is a bunker buster? How powerful is it?

In fact, earth-penetrating bombs are guided bombs, such as laser-guided bombs and JDAM.

The so-called earth-penetrating projectile is a kind of special ammunition with earth-penetrating projectile head, which is specially used to attack airport runways and ground reinforcement targets, especially underground facilities. It should be said that the emergence and development of earth-penetrating bombs have experienced a long-term struggle to promote each other with protective engineering. In the early 1960s, in order to develop a kind of ammunition that can drill into the ground to destroy the intercontinental missile silo of the former Soviet Union, the US military began to study the earth-penetrating projectile. After decades of research and development, there are more than ten types and dozens of models of earth-penetrating bombs that have been developed and are being developed so far, among which the typical ones are:

GBU-28 Earth Penetrating Bomb: This is a conventional Earth Penetrating Bomb developed during the Gulf War. It is specially used to attack the command center deep underground in Iraq. It can drill through 6 meters thick reinforced concrete fortifications and 30 meters thick ordinary ground.

JDAM Ground Penetrating Bomb: It is a ground penetrating bomb jointly developed by the US Air Force and Navy, with high precision, all-weather and autonomous guidance capability. 1997 began mass production, which can be dropped by bombers or fighters from high, medium and low altitude to attack various ground (sea) targets.

Hypersonic cruise missile: It is a kind of earth-penetrating bomb with fast flying speed, strong penetration ability and large attack range, which is specially used to attack reinforced targets and targets deep underground. The missile has extremely high kinetic energy, and its maximum penetration depth into sand can reach 40 meters, and the maximum penetration depth into cement can reach 1 1 meter, which is especially suitable for attacking underground solid targets such as underground command centers.

B6 1- 1 1 Ground Penetrating Bomb: This kind of bomb is a tactical and strategic nuclear weapon, and its maximum equivalent killing range can reach tens to hundreds of meters underground.

It is reported that the first application of new earth-penetrating bombs in the Gulf War attracted great attention, while in the Iraq War, the US military destroyed Saddam's bunker with earth-penetrating bombs, which showed the irreplaceable role of earth-penetrating bombs in attacking underground defense facilities, so it was hailed as the "killer weapon" for implementing "surgery".

Compared with ordinary ammunition, earth-penetrating bullets have the special function of earth-penetrating, because they have many unique technical characteristics:

Fuzes are becoming more and more intelligent. The fuze of earth-penetrating projectile usually adopts delay fuze or intelligent fuze. The delay fuse can ensure that the warhead penetrates the target 300 milliseconds before detonating the explosive; Intelligent fuze is a multi-level fuze being developed by the US military. Its principle is that the bomb touches the ground and enters the ground to a certain depth. The primary fuse exploded, leaving a hole. The bomb continued to drill to a certain depth along the borehole. The explosion of the secondary fuze blew a hole ... and so on until the bomb went deep underground to find the target and the main warhead exploded.

The missile body is designed with high strength. The working environment of earth-penetrating projectile is harsh, and the material of the projectile must have high strength and toughness to ensure that the electronic devices and other devices in the warhead can work normally in extreme environments such as high temperature and high pressure formed during high-speed penetration.

The attack speed is just right. If the impact speed is too low, the penetration depth will be too small, or even unable to penetrate the target; However, if the impact speed is too high, the warhead may be deformed due to the impact temperature approaching or exceeding the melting point of the warhead material, and the penetration depth will be reduced due to the mushroom warhead effect, so the impact speed must be just right.

Extraordinary explosive force. After drilling into the ground, the earth-penetrating projectile couples energy to the ground when it explodes, and its destruction efficiency is 10~30 times greater than that of equivalent ground explosion. Therefore, even if the earth-penetrating projectile does not go deep into the ground, its explosive power will be far greater than that of ordinary conventional ammunition, so its combat effect is very remarkable. Future contest: "shield" is stronger and "spear" is more beneficial.