v1.6.0 / chapter 2 of 13 / 01 nov 06 / greg goebel / public domain
* This chapter follows up on the previous chapter by discussing cluster munitions, napalm and fuel-air explosive (FAE) bombs, and more specialized dumb munitions.
* Details of cluster munitions used by the US during World War II and the Korean War are unclear. The US military used three types of submunitions dispensers in Vietnam: the "SUU-7/A", the "SUU-13/A", and the "SUU-14/A". The acronym SUU stands for "Suspension Utility Unit" or "Suspension Underwing Unit". These weapons are no longer in the US inventory.
The SUU-7/A resembled an unguided rocket pod, in the form of a cylinder with conical ends, but with munitions ports pointing rearward. The SUU-7/A could carry a range of submunitions, with the combination of dispenser and submunition assigned a specific designation. There were also "SUU-7B/A" and "SUU-7C/A" variants of this dispenser. Possible configurations included:
* The SUU-13/A was a dispenser in the form of a rectangular box with rounded fairings at both ends. It ejected its submunitions straight down from 40 ports in the bottom of the box. Configurations included:
Incidentally, there was also a "BLU-20/B23" bomblet that delivered the "BZ" hallucinogenic gas, known as "Agent Buzz", though it doesn't seem that BZ was ever actually fielded. The "BLU-21/B45" and "BLU-22/B45" were both designed to deliver dry biological agents; the US military was never very enthusiastic about biological warfare and it is likely these bomblets never got out of stockpile, if they were ever put into service at all.
* The SUU-14/A resembled a bundle of six pipes strapped together, with a cap on the front end to hold them together. It ejected the submunitions out the rear. The photographic record suggests that it was particularly popular. Configurations for the SUU-14/A included:
Some sources mention that the SUU-14/A also carried a minelet known as "gravel" in Vietnam. It was apparently nothing but a small lump of plastic explosive that was packed in a freon-filled container and became very shock-sensitive when it dried after dispersal. Details are very unclear, with pictures available showing a wedge-shaped cloth packet designated "XM27", or square cloth packets with the designation "XM40", "XM41", "XM44", or "XM65".
Cluster submunition dispensers were often used in Vietnam by search and rescue support aircraft, such the Douglas A-1 Skyraider. Riot gas loads were useful for interfering with the work of antiaircraft gunners, and a Skyraider could lay down a carpet of minelets behind downed aircrew on the run to block pursuers.
* Modern American cluster bombs, generally known as "cluster bomb units (CBUs)", are organized around several general canisters that can be filled with a variety of different submunitions.
The canisters include:
The Rockeye and the TMD canisters feature pop-out tailfins. The tailfins of the Rockeye and SUU-65/B TMD are canted a bit to impart a spin to the canister before it pops open to ensure scattering of the submunitions. The SUU-30/A canister appears to have small tabs at the end of each of its fixed tailfins to achieve the same result. These munitions are sometimes referred to as "sprinklers" or "tossed salad", while the cloud of submunitions are sometimes known as "black rain".
The tailfins of the SUU-64/B and SUU-66/B canisters are straight, meaning they don't spin. Both these canisters also have a thermal battery, which has a long shelf life and can be activated before a mission to power submunition electronics; the SUU-65/B does not have a thermal battery because its submunition loads don't have any electronics. The SUU-64/B is used to dispense mines and also has a switch to program mine arming conditions.
In any case, the canister is popped open by a time-delay fuze, activated by a lanyard on release from the carrier aircraft, or by a proximity fuze activated at a specified altitude over the ground.
* There are a few standard combat configurations for each type of canister, with the munition delivered in prepackaged form as an "all-up round". Some sources hint that the SUU-30/B canister can be field-configured to carry leaflets and other payloads.
The basic Rockeye cluster bomb was first fielded in 1968 for use in Vietnam, and is still an important weapon. It was used extensively in the Gulf War. Details of Rockeye configurations are a bit tricky to unravel. The current Rockeye II canister, preferred by the US Navy and Marines, apparently has alternate designations of "SUU-75/B" and "SUU-76/B", the different designations no doubt indicating some minor differences in detail. There appears to be three primary configurations:
Both mines have microelectronic fuzes. The BLU-91/B can discriminate between different types of armored vehicles, and detonate when it is likely to have optimum effect against belly armor. The BLU-92/B is activated by wires that it tosses out after landing, and is intended to hinder minefield clearing. Both mines will self-destruct after a preset time period, with the three possible time settings defined by a selector switch on the canister. (Modern mines distributed as cluster submunitions are as a rule always fitted with timed self-destruct fuzes to prevent them from being a hazard later to civilians or friendly forces moving into the mined area.) The CBU-89/B, based on the larger TMD canister, disperses the same two types of mines and is also known as a "Gator".
* Most or all of the submunitions used by the SUU-30/B canister are in the form of small spherical ribbed grenades, with the ribbing usually angled to help the submunition spin for arming and to aid in dispersal. These submunitions come in a range of sizes and can be designed for fragmentation or incendiary effects. The "BLU-26/B" is more or less typical, being a fragmentation submunition with a weight of 540 grams (1.2 pounds), and is sometimes called the "Guava", after a small tropical fruit. The "BLU-68/B" is an incendiary submunition with a weight of 420 grams (0.93 pounds). Sources say it uses titanium pellets as the incendiary agent.
The list of SUU-30/B configurations is long and tedious. Representative configurations include the "CBU-24/B", with 670 BLU-26/B submunitions, and the "CBU-54/B", with 670 BLU-68/B submunitions.
* It is unclear if the SUU-30/B canister is still in service. The TMD canister appears to be the "standard" for the USAF at this time, and CBUs based on it include:
There is a "CBU-97/B", which carries the smart BLU-108 Sensor Fused Weapon (SFW)", submunition, and a "CBU-94/B" with "soft kill" submunitions to attack electrical power stations. There are also a number of TMD CBU configurations that include the "Wind Corrected Munitions Dispenser (WCMD)" guidance kit. These configurations fall somewhat outside the definition of typical cluster munitions and are discussed later.
* European nations, including France, the UK, and Germany, have built and used their own types of cluster munitions. The French contribution to cluster bomb technology is the "Belouga", which is optimized for low-level high-speed strike. Its canister is 3.3 meters (10 feet) long and is 36.6 centimeters (14.5 inches) in diameter.
The Belouga is loaded with 151 submunitions. It can dispense three different types of submunitions: a fragmentation bomb for use against soft targets, an armor-piercing bomb for use against tanks, and a mine used for "area denial" operations. Each submunitions is 66 millimeters (3 inches) in diameter, and weighs 1.3 kilograms (2.86 pounds).
The Belouga is parachute-retarded after release. It is not a clamshell canister, instead ejecting the submunitions from launching ports covering the weapon's body. The submunitions deploy small parachutes after ejection. The pilot may select either a concentrated or dispersed submunition scatter pattern before release of the weapon. The Belouga was a follow-on to the "Giboulee", a dispenser that had 12 or 24 tubes that could store five bomblets each.
* The British Hunting Engineering / Royal Ordnance Factory "BL-755" cluster bomb is 2.4 meters (7 feet 9 inches) long, 42 centimeters (16.5 inches) in diameter, and carries 147 fragmentation bomblets. Like the Belouga, it is optimized for low-level, high-speed strike. The initial BL-755 was introduced in 1972, and was followed by the current "Improved BL-755" in 1987.
The BL-755 is also not a clamshell canister. Its two side panels pop off, with the bomblets ejected by expanding gas bladders. The bomblets are 15 centimeters long (5.9 inches), about 5 centimeters (2 inches) in diameter, and combine an antiarmor hollow charge with a case containing a segmented metal coil for antipersonnel effect.
On deployment, the submunitions extend a small standoff probe detonator and pop out a retarding parachute. The initial version of the BL-755 used submunitions with a popout metal "crown" for stabilization. One BL-755 was dropped on Argentine troops in the Falklands, and quickly persuaded the survivors to put up the white flag. The BL-755 series has been popular in international sales, since it is both effective and relatively cheap. Hunting has developed a proximity fuze for the BL-755 to allow it to be released at higher altitudes.
Neither the Belouga nor the BL-755 were used in large numbers in the Gulf War. This was not due to any inherent defect in their design, but because they were designed for low-level strike. US cluster bombs were better optimized for high-altitude release and were a better fit for mission profiles.
* However, another Hunting Engineering weapon, the "JP-233" bomblet dispenser, was used in the Gulf War in its intended role, airfield attack. JP-233s were extensively used by RAF Tornado strike aircraft early in the air war to disrupt the operation of Iraqi airfields. The strikes were at low level and were extremely hazardous to the Tornado crews.
Two 6.5 meter (21 foot 6 inch) long JP-233s can be fixed to the bottom of a Tornado. Each of the two dispensers consists of two sections, with the rear section carrying 30 "SG-357" runway cratering submunitions and the front section carrying 215 "HB-876" antipersonnel mines. Both submunitions are parachute-retarded. The SG-357 weighs 26 kilograms (75 pounds) and is a "two-stage" munition, something of a British specialty, with a hollow charge in the front to blast a hole in a runway, and a cratering charge that falls into the hole and then explodes.
The HB-876 munitions can detonate at random intervals, and can also punch an explosively-formed slug through a bulldozer or other vehicle that disturbs them. The HB-876 is a 2.5 kilogram (5.5 pound) munition that looks like a beer can, with a dimpled surface to promote fragmentation. The base of the HB-876 is surrounded by little curled spring-metal legs that are released to uncurl downward and pop the mine into a vertical position.
Two dispersal rates can be selected for the JP-233, one giving a short, broad swath and the other a long, narrow swath. There are no alternative submunition configurations for the JP-233, and so it is a specialized weapon, useful only for attacking airfields or other soft, distributed targets such as railyards or supply depots.
The JP-233 was originally conceived in the late 1970s as a cooperative program with the US Air Force, which wanted to use the weapon with its FB-111 strike aircraft. Rising costs forced the USAF to pull out of the program, but the British completed development on their own.
Hunting developed a version of the BL-755 CBU that carries 49 HB.876 minelets as used on the JP-233. This weapon was named the "Hunting Area Denial System (HADES)". It is unclear if it entered operational service.
* Luftwaffe Tornadoes use a conceptually similar, but different in detail, submunition dispenser, the MBB-Diehl "MW-1" (where "MW" stands for "MehrzweckWaffe / Multipurpose Weapon"). This weapon looks something like a big bathtub strapped onto the belly of the Tornado, with submunition launch tubes facing outward on each side of the tub.
The MW-1 actually consists of four sections joined together, each with 28 launch tubes on each side, for a total of 112 tubes on each side. The submunitions are blasted out of the tubes by pyrotechnic charges, with the dispersal pattern determined by the size and firing order of the charges.
The MW-1 can carry combinations of different types of submunitions:
Payload configurations can be defined to fit specific missions. For example, 4,500 KB-44s can be carried by a single MW-1 dispenser to saturate an area covering about 180 x 500 meters (590 x 1,640 feet). The entire payload can be ejected in about 0.6 seconds. Head-on photographs of a Tornado spewing submunitions its MW-1 are impressive and fearsome.
Initial deliveries of the MW-1 to the Luftwaffe began in 1984. The MW-1 was originally tested on Luftwaffe F-104G Starfighters and then F-4 Phantoms, but as with the JP-233, the Tornado is the only aircraft that carries it operationally. The USAF considered the weapon for its A-10 tankbuster, but didn't follow through. As far as I know, the MW-1 has never been used in combat, which is just as well.
* The French have developed a pair of cluster bombs, the Thomson-Brandt "BAP-100" runway cratering bomb and the similar "BAT-120" antiarmor bomb, weighing 100 kilograms (220 pounds) and 120 kilograms (265 pounds) respectively. These weapons are only loosely cluster munitions, being unitary bombs carried in a rack of nine, with one aircraft carrying multiple racks. Details are unclear, but the BAT-120 appears to be a parachute-retarded fragmentation weapon. If so, the fragments are likely pretty hefty, since the weapon is intended to attack armored vehicles.
* The Soviets of course developed their own cluster munitions, though details tend to be unclear for the time being. The primary Soviet-Russian cluster-bomb canister is the "RBK-500", a 500 kilogram (1,100 pound) clamshell canister that can be loaded with various submunitions:
The Russian "KMGU-2" canister is a larger unit, but details are unclear as well.
The Israelis have developed at least one type of cluster bomb, designated the "TAL-2". This weapon superficially resembles the BL-755 but has conventional bomb tailfins, and is a "clamshell" canister. It can store 270 to 315 bomblets. Sources suggest that it was mostly built for the export market.
Industrias Cardoen SA of Chile makes the "CB-130" (60 kilograms or 132 pounds) and the "CB-500" (245 kilograms or 540 pounds) cluster-bomb unit, with bomblets similar to those used in the US Rockeye CBU. The CB-130 can carry 50 bomblets, while the CB-150 can carry 240 bomblets.
* Cluster bomb units have also been developed in South Africa, but details are unclear. Since the technology has been around a long time and at the low end is about on the level of technical complexity of, say, a portable stereo, it is likely such weapons are made in many other countries as well.
One of the main problems with cluster bomb submunitions is that they have a high dud rate, sometimes greater than 10%, meaning that potentially deadly munitions remain strewn around the target area, presenting a threat to civilians and friendly forces. This problem has led to an enhanced effort to develop more reliable fuzing systems and reduce the dud rate.
* While napalm is an old and familiar weapon, it has fallen into disuse, in the American arsenal at least. The unfinned 340 kilogram (750 pound) / 380 liter (100 US gallon) "BLU-1/B" napalm bomb and its finned variant, the "BLU-27/B", were used extensively and with devastating effect in Vietnam. US forces also used the "M35" and "M36" "Funny Bombs", which scattered thermite over a target area and proved lethal to trucks and area targets.
However, the only napalm bomb still in the US inventory is the 340 kilogram (750 pound) "Mark 77", which was used in the Gulf War. Why the use of napalm has declined is hard to understand, since it was apparently an extremely effective battlefield weapon. Although napalm did get a lot of bad press in the Vietnam war, it would be odd to call it inhumane and still use cluster bombs.
The US Air Force and Navy have been collaborating on a special incendiary fill for "agent defeat" munitions, designed to be loaded into penetrating munitions to destroy chemical and biological weapon stockpiles. This fill is a "titanium boron lithium perchlorate intermetallic" that burns at a very high temperature, decomposing chemical agents and killing biological agents. The fill also generates lithium, chlorine, and acidic compounds that kill biological agents. The fill does not generate high pressures when ignited, reducing the likelihood that it will disperse chemical or biological agents from the target.
* The US military originally evaluated fuel-air explosives (FAEs) in Vietnam, using an odd-looking weapon named the "BLU-76/B Pave Pat 1". This 1.18 tonne (2,600 pound) weapon looked like a big can with a cone nose and stubby fins in back. It was loaded with liquid ethylene oxide and had an equivalent explosive yield of about 9 tonnes (10 US tons) of TNT. It was apparently not very satisfactory and was used only in small numbers.
The Navy also developed the "FAE-1" series of FAE bombs late in the Vietnam War, which would be fielded as the "CBU-55/B" and similar "CBU-72/B" FAEs. Both these munitions contain three 45 kilogram (100 pound) "BLU-73/B" submunitions containing ethylene oxide. The three submunitions disperse a cloud about 20 meters in diameter (66 feet) and two or three meters (7 to 10 feet) high that is then ignited. The result is a spectacular fireball that is highly effective against exposed targets.
FAEs were dropped in the Gulf War, both to clear minefields and for psychological effect. After the war, the remaining FAE munitions in the US inventory were disposed of, but the military had by no means abandoned the technology, and in fact was considering what else could be done with it.
During the Afghanistan campaign in 2001:2002, the US Air Force performed combat evaluations of the new "BLU-118/B" bomb, which was developed under the "Hard Target Defeat" program. The BLU-118/B is essentially a 900 kilogram (2,000 pound) BLU-109/B penetrating bomb, discussed in the previous chapter, but filled with a type of enhanced FAE instead of conventional high explosive. Of course, the BLU-118/B can be fitted with the same laser or electro-optic guidance systems as the BLU-109/B.
The BLU-118/B is described as a "thermobaric" munition and not an FAE, the term indicating that the bomb produces both thermal and blast pressure effects, and is intended for attacks on underground tunnel targets. The bomb's FAE load is scattered as an aerosol by a dispersal charge and then detonated. In contrast with traditional FAEs, which generate a "big ball of fire", the thermobaric aerosol detonates with blast effect much more like that of an normal explosive filling. The result is a crushing high-pressure shockwave that propagates through the tunnel system, followed by an asphyxiating wave of intense flame.
The Air Force has been experimenting with a "solid FAE (SFAE)" filling that apparently disperses a fine cloud of aluminum particles, while the Navy has been working on an "interhalogen oxidizer" filling, possibly based on fluorine. Initial tests of the BLU-118/B were conducted in mid-December 2001, and by late winter 2002 the weapon was in use in Afghanistan, performing attacks on tunnels occupied by Taliban and Al-Qaida forces.
* Along with a series of napalm bombs with the general designation of "ZAB", the Russians also have developed FAEs, and displayed a new 520 kilogram (1,150 pound) weapon in this category designated the "ODAB-500PM" at the Paris Air Show in 1995. The weapon looks something like a napalm tank with a ring tail, includes a parachute stored in the tail as a retarder, and is said to have an effective blast radius of 30 meters (100 feet) against exposed targets. There was some international outcry over the use of this weapon by Russian forces against Chechnyan rebels in 1999 and 2000.
* After the USAF was forced to pull out of the JP-233 program due to budget problems, they finally settled on another European weapon, the French Matra "Durandal" 205 kilogram (450 pound) runway-cratering weapon, known in US service as the "BLU-107/B". The Durandal was based on the conceptually similar PAPAM "runway dibber" weapon, developed by Israel Military Industries (IMI) using Matra design concepts and employed during the 1967 Six-Day War.
The USAF has purchased thousands of Durandals. The Durandal weighs about 195 kilograms (430 pounds) and is parachute-retarded after low-level drop. Once it achieves a nose-down attitude, it fires a rocket booster that slams it into the ground, where it explodes and blasts out the runway. It can penetrate up to 40 centimeters (16 inches) of concrete, and leaves a crater with an area of about 200 square meters (2,150 square feet). USAF F-111s could carry up to 12 of these weapons at a time, while French Mirage 2000s could handle a total of 8.
The Soviets developed a concrete-dibber weapon of their own, a 100 kilogram (220 pound) munition developed by the SAKR organization. It is carried in sticks of three. Details are unclear.
* The US Air Force fielded an unconventional new cluster bomb unit designated the "CBU-94/B", mentioned earlier, during the NATO air campaign against Yugoslavia in the spring of 1999. The CBU-94/B used a TMD that contained 202 "BLU-114/B" submunitions, which were filled with conductive wires that were dispersed to short out Serbian power stations.
According to US officials, the BLU-114/B submunitions are about the size of two beer cans stacked on top of each other. After the submunitions are scattered by the TMD, and then pop off a nose cap. 147 spools of conductive fibers are then shot out with a small explosive charge to unravel into a tangle that falls on power lines and other power-distribution equipment, shorting it out.
The US Navy used spools of such wire stuffed into Tomahawk cruise missiles to short out Iraqi power systems during the Gulf War in 1991. After the Gulf War, the USAF decided to develop a more formal weapon based on the concept.
The CBU-94/B will disable a power system for only a few hours, since the wires can be cleaned up easily enough, though if any are left lying around they can be blown back into the power station on the slightest breeze, shorting it out again. However, it is rumored that the US military has been working on a similar munition that is filled with fine conductive whiskers, which form a cloud and get into everything. They could be sucked into personal computers through cooling fans and would be very difficult to clean up.
After the 1999 attacks with the CBU-94/B, the Serbs working at the power plants collected samples of the threads, as well as remnants of the TMD and submunition cases, and passed them on to the Russians for analysis. The Russians report that the TMD cases were marked "CBU-102/B" instead of "CBU-94/B", and that the threads were actually made of glass fiber coated with aluminum, not carbon fiber as the US military stated. It appears that the CBU-102/B was a minor modification of the CBU-94/B. Reports also indicate that it took 500 people 15 hours to get a Serbian transformer yard back on line after being hit with the conductive fibers.
* The USAF also says they possess an "electromagnetic pulse (EMP)" or "high power microwave (HPM)" warhead that can, under optimum conditions, fry electronic equipment over an area the size of an athletic field. Details are unclear, but it appears this weapon was derived in the early 1990s from test devices developed by the US Los Alamos National Laboratories beginning in the late 1980s. The USAF refined the Los Alamos device into one that could fit into the nose of a cruise missile.
The USAF EMP / HPM weapon is described as consisting of a helical coil wrapped around a copper cylinder. A bank of capacitors supplies an initial current of a few hundred thousand amperes that creates a magnetic field in the gap between the coil and the cylinder. A conventional explosive charge explodes the coil assembly from the rear forward, compressing the magnetic field and generating a powerful electromagnetic pulse. The overall power of the pulse is not great. A simple antenna is used to focus it in a 30-degree cone to hit a target no more than a few hundred meters away. The weapon fires through a transparent window in the nose of the missile, with the window also used by targeting sensors.
This particular HPM munition appears to be only the tip of the iceberg, with a great deal of work in the field going on in secret. The Air Force has admitted to testing HPM warheads on AGM-86B Air Launched Cruise Missiles. British Aerospace (BAE) Systems is also working on HPM munitions, with financial backing and technical support from the US; the program is rumored to be codenamed "Virus". A British HPM munition has tested in the US on Ryan BQM-145A drones. The British are also believed to have developed a "radio frequency munition" that operates at a lower and broader range of frequencies than an HPM. Germany, France, Israel, and Sweden are also working on HPM weapons.
Tests of such munitions have not only demonstrated the ability to disrupt or damage electronic and computing systems, even when they're turned off, but have also fried automotive ignition systems and small electric motors. Reports indicate that pulse power levels of up to 20 gigawatts have been produced, though only for a very short period of time. Although these have been single-shot munitions, over the long run the goal is to develop HPMs that would be able to engage up to a hundred separate targets during a sortie. While range is currently on the order of a hundred meters or so, researchers hope to get the range up to a kilometer or so at least.
The US Air Force hopes to field HPM warheads for cruise missiles in the near future. Follow-up efforts will design HPM munitions that can be loaded up into the weapons bay of robot strike aircraft, or "uninhabited combat aerial vehicles (UCAVs)", now in development, and miniaturized HPM munitions for small cruise missiles. Although the Americans are focusing on unmanned delivery platforms, out of fears that the microwave pulse would damage the platform's electronic systems, the British believe that such a weapon could also be carried by a manned aircraft.
The HPM munition is regarded as attractive since it involves little "collateral damage" to structures and populations outside of the immediate target and even potentially little injury to personnel inside the target itself. It would also be able to produce selective effects, producing a "soft" pulse just to disrupt systems, or a "hard" pulse to wreck them permanently.
The Air Force sees the primary target of HPM munitions as air-defense sites, but an HPM munition could also be used to disable biological or chemical weapons facilities, shutting down their systems without any release of agents. Another virtue of the HPM munition is that it might be very useful for an indirect attack on "hard" buried targets, with the pulse sending power surges through electrical connections into the site that fry electronic systems inside. The Air Force is also considering a more direct approach, in which an HPM warhead is fitted into the casing of a bunker-buster bomb; even if the bomb didn't penetrate the roof of a bunker, the HPM pulse would still fry all the electronics inside.
* Cluster munition artillery shells are also in service; although they are not air-launched munitions, they are very similar to CBUs and so worth commenting on here. They are generally referred to as "cargo munitions" or "cargo shells", a broad term for any artillery shell that dispenses a payload instead of carrying an explosive charge.
The history of the concept is obscure. The idea has probably been around for as long as air-dropped cluster munitions, but as far as the records go, the first cargo munition to carry a load of submunitions, usually called "grenades" in this context, was the US Army "M483" 155-millimeter round. It is a "separate loading" munition, fired with bagged powder charges instead of as an integrated cartridge, and loaded with 88 "Dual Purpose Improved Conventional Munitions (DPICMs)" antipersonnel / antiarmor impact-fuzed grenades resembling large flashlight batteries.
The grenades are of straightforward configuration, with a hollow charge in a metal case and a streamer that each grenade deploys after the M483 case bursts open. There are two types of grenades: 64 "M42" grenades with prefragmented cases forward, and 24 "M46" grenades in the rear, with heftier and non-prefragmented casings so they can handle the shock of firing. The shell can be fitted with a charge to detonate all the grenades at once without dispersal; this is used to register fire on targets, since a standard unitary shell doesn't have the same flight characteristics.
* As long as an artillery shell had been developed to disperse grenades, there was no particular reason why the same basic technology couldn't be used to disperse other offensive payloads, leading to the 155-millimeter "Area Denial Antipersonnel (ADAM)" mine shell and the "Remote Anti-Armor Mine (RAAM)" shell:
* The M483 family appears to have become something of a standard for Western armies. The M483 has since been followed by the "M864", which is a "base burn" projectile. An artillery shell leaves turbulence in its wake that can rob the projectile of energy, reducing its range; a base burn projectile features a pyrotechnic load in the base of the shell that generates gas to drive out the turbulence, substantially enhancing range. Fit of the base burn system meant that the number of grenades had to be reduced to 70 from 88, with 46 M42 grenades and 24 M46 grenades.
* Cargo rounds have been developed for other weapons besides the 155 millimeter gun. The US Army has obtained a 105-millimeter cargo round, carrying 42 "M80" DPICM grenades, similar to the M42 but with an improved fuzing system. This is a cartridge-type round, not requiring a separate propellant load, and there are two variants: the "M915" with a large charge for long range and the "M916" with a small charge for short range. Cargo rounds have also been developed for the 107 millimeter (4.2 inch) mortar and 120 millimeter mortar, though details are obscure.
Of course, cargo rounds have been developed elsewhere. Rheimetall of Germany developed the 155-millimeter "DM642", a more aerodynamic cargo shell with greater range than the M483. It carries 63 grenades, again much along the lines of the M42. The DM642 has since been followed by the "Rh49", which is an extended-range base bleed munition with the load reduced to 43 grenades. It is a sure bet that the Russians have a complete line of cargo shells, but details are very hard to find.
Cargo shells are a fairly standard weapon in modern warfare. The M483 was used in the 1991 Gulf War, as well as in the invasion of Iraq in 2003, when it was joined by the M864 base burn shell; the M864 was available at time of the Gulf War, but operational procedures hadn't been implemented for its use. During the last days of the Israeli fight with Hezbollah militia in southern Lebanon in the summer of 2006, Israeli artillery plastered the region with large numbers of cargo shells.
