FACT FILE: Guided Bomb Units
By fitting a conventional low-drag gravity bomb with an aerodynamic
control assembly and a seeker head, the unit becomes a GBU and can now
be dropped with much greater precision. GBUs include beam riders, radar
guided bombs, inertially guided bombs, and optically guided bombs. GBUs
are ultra-inexpensive when compared to guided missiles, and so are often
the weapon of choice in atmospheric applications (bombs in general are
ineffective outside an atmosphere: in space, there is no gravity to propel
the bomb; in vacuum the control surfaces have no affect on the bomb's course).
Any LD gravity bomb can be fitted with the aerodynamic control package
and any of the seeker head types listed below.
Beam Riders
So long as a target is illuminated with a guidance beam (laser
or tachyon typically), the bomb's seeker head can adjust it's aerodynamic
controls so that the bomb can ride the beam right down onto the target.
BGBUs are excellent weapons in scenarios where targets can be safely designated
by forward friendly units or other aircraft.
Radar Guided
With a scanner seeker head similar to a radar-guided missile,
the bomb can track a pre-designated target (usually locked-on by the dropping
aircraft) and correct it's course to assure it's impact point coincides
with the radar signal. Can be effective in the absence of forward units
to 'paint' the target with a beam, but is also easily jammed.
Inertially Guided
An impact point is calculated by the craft's bombsight and fed
to the bomb. The bomb then uses it's intertial guidance system to correct
it's course in flight to assure impact at the calculated impact point.
Extremely effective against stationary targets, useless against moving
one's.
Optically Guided
A target is designated through optical sensors and locked on.
The bomb then corrects its course once dropped to keep the picture of the
taget 'in the crosshairs'. Highly effective when targets are in open area
with little cover.
Bomb Nomenclature
There is a very wide array of bombs available to the SFMC, but
they fall into general categories that each have there own designating
prefix for the bomb's nomenclature: LD (low drag), HD (high drag), GBU
(guided bomb unit), CBU (cluster bomb unit), AP (armor-piercing), FAE (fuel/air
explosive), M/A (matter/antimatter). The number that follows is particular
to the series of bombs in question and gets larger with the size of the
bomb's warhead. For example, HD-8500 designates a high drag (HD), high
explosive gravity bomb (8xxx series), with a 500kg warhead.
Some material on this page ruthlessly plagerized from the SFMC's Aerospace Branch Manual by Matt Kelley and available from SFMC Academy.
WebPage designed & maintained by Kevin "MAC" Nulty
