Translated material
Family bomb
The Russian military tested a new weapon
Surprising the world with a new, “unparalleled” weapon is becoming a tradition in Russia. This time the demonstration took place on the sixth anniversary of the terrorist attack on the United States on September 11 - the Russian military tested a super-powerful vacuum bomb. The strategic missile carrier Tu-160 dropped it with a parachute at the training ground. The unusual thing about this bomb is that, unlike the recently demonstrated strategic and hypersonic cruise missiles, this new product can be used even tomorrow.The temptation is all the more great since the force of its explosion can be compared with the force of a nuclear bomb, but there is no danger of polluting the environment. Before this, the most powerful volumetric bomb was considered to be the American one, which was tested four years ago and which idle people in the USA called “the mother of all bombs.” The Russians, in defiance of their “sworn friends,” called their invention the “father of all bombs.” Thus, a kind of vacuum-bomb family emerged. True, the “father” is twice as hot in temperature, four times as powerful, and two dozen times ahead of the “mother” in terms of area covered.
Experts say there is no point in competing in the definition of “pioneering,” since the Germans were the first to use a volumetric explosion, preparing for the destruction of Gibraltar during the Second World War. They sprayed hydrogen into the air, which, when mixed with oxygen, formed an explosive mixture, and blew up the cloud with a conventional bomb. The invention was developed by the Americans during the Vietnam War. The USSR used the new product during the conflict with China in 1969, and then in Afghanistan. Nowadays, the Russian army has a wide arsenal of third-generation volumetric detonating ammunition. It is difficult to say whether there are ammunition developed in the USSR based on powder and liquid reagents in service.
Today's products of this kind can completely destroy not only the enemy's manpower, that is, people, but also vegetation and agricultural crops. In order for an ignorant person to understand what a volumetric explosion is, it is enough to imagine that, for example, a brick wall of some building falls in the direction not from the center of the explosion of a powerful projectile, but, on the contrary, towards the center. We add that with the help of a volumetric or vacuum explosion it is easy to destroy the same terrorists holed up in caves, deep mountain shelters, since a terrible pressure drop is felt by the human body and there - lungs burst, eyes pop out of their sockets, a person suffers serious internal damage, including to the brain.
The Russian new product, according to the military, will replace low-power nuclear charges (backpack ones). The fight against international terrorism will reach a qualitatively new level. The Russian Ministry of Defense claims that this development does not violate any international treaty. Indeed, explosive munitions are not prohibited by international humanitarian law. The bomb “turned out to be cheap, with high destructive properties,” said Deputy Chief of the General Staff, Colonel General Alexander Rukshin.
The principle of operation of a vacuum bomb has been known for a long time: to spray and detonate a special flammable substance over a selected target. The damaging factors are an explosive shock wave and extremely high temperature. The Ministry of Defense says that the explosive in the new aerial bomb has great destructive power because it was created using nanotechnology. In fact, experts in the field of explosion physics believe that the composition of the substance is the secret that the military is keeping and will keep for a long time under the heading “secret.” Previous bombs, both ours and the American ones, were truly “dirty” - they exploded acetylene or propylene oxide, these compounds are extremely toxic. One can only guess what is in the new bomb.
In addition, say the same experts in the field of explosion physics, the know-how of this bomb is that its energy is spent selectively - the force of the explosion is pre-calculated for the strength of the target that needs to be destroyed. Apparently, this is why General Rukshin talks about the cheapness of the bomb. The term “optimized explosion” may well be applied here. Interestingly, the demonstration of the “father of all bombs,” which clearly has an aviation purpose, coincided with the resumption of duty flights of Russian long-range strategic aircraft over those areas of the world where they had not flown since 1992. The hint is quite clear.
Why has a new product that has been known in narrow military-industrial circles for fifteen years surfaced only now? Some people connect this with the ongoing election race (which, of course, is preferable to the arms race). Some say that the Russian defense-industrial complex simply has nothing to show for itself in the dispute over the deployment of elements of the American strategic missile defense system in Europe. Some insist that there is indeed an arms race going on.