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It is possible to transform Russia into a parliamentary republic or to remove “more than two terms in a row” without a Constitutional Assembly

The headlines of newspapers and Internet resources dedicated to the article by the head of the Constitutional Court interpret this opus of Valery Zorkin differently. Some write that “Zorkin proposed not to touch the Constitution,” while speaking “against the reform, but for targeted changes.” Others considered the most important thing to be the proposal of “spot changes”. Still others don’t bother with details - “The Basic Law will change,” period. The disagreement is clear: the head of the Constitutional Court himself did everything to confuse the matter. Among the “shortcomings” of the Basic Law, according to Mr. Zorkin, is the lack of proper balance in the system of checks and balances, “a bias in favor of executive power

“, as well as “insufficient clarity” in the distribution of powers between the president and the government, between the center and the regions, in determining the status of the Presidential Administration and the powers of the prosecutor’s office. The head doesn't like it Constitutional Court and the “construction” of Article 12, which states that local government

is not part of the system of government bodies and is conditionally independent. The head of the Constitutional Court believes that municipalities should, on paper, occupy the place that in fact they have long occupied in the country - the place of “the lower echelon of public authority.” Nothing original, that is, what a respected lawyer in different time

I wouldn’t have said or written before, it’s not in the text. He called “reappearing calls for cardinal constitutional reforms” “particularly alarming” in the current “far from favorable socio-economic situation,” and proposed correcting the shortcomings of the current Constitution, born in 1993, with “spot changes.” But even a spot amendment can turn out to be a serious reform, because we are talking about the CONSTITUTION.

But without a Constitutional Assembly, it is impossible to introduce a state ideology in Russia - because “no ideology can be established as mandatory and state,” it is said in Chapter One. An exhaustive list of bodies and structures that “carry out state power in Russia,” is also there, these are the president, the government, the parliament and the courts, and if someone wants to supplement it with some kind of State Council, they need a Constitutional Assembly. Without it, it will not be possible to transform Russia from at least formally federal state into unitary, abolishing national republics. And even more so, completely rewrite the Constitution, replacing it with a new one!

By the way, Article 12, so disliked by the head of the Constitutional Court, about local self-government is in the first chapter of the Constitution.

But chapters three through eight can be rewritten inside and out using ordinary federal constitutional laws adopted by a two-thirds vote of both houses of parliament. But precisely these chapters talk about the powers of the subjects of the Russian Federation and the federal center, the president, parliament, government, the procedure for electing or forming higher authorities authorities and the principles of formation of courts!

That is, a federal constitutional law can transform Russia from a presidential republic into a parliamentary one, reduce or increase the scope of powers of the head of state, remove the words “more than two terms in a row” from the article about the permissible possible time for one person to stay on highest position in the state, abolish the Duma or the Federation Council, turning the parliament into a unicameral...

A lot of things can be done without much trouble while parliament is totally controlled by the Kremlin. In the State Duma, for example, " United Russia“There are 341 mandates, and 301 votes are enough to pass a constitutional law.

It was by federal constitutional law, on the initiative of President Dmitry Medvedev, that the presidential term of office in 2008 was increased from 4 to 6 years, and the term of office of State Duma deputies - from 4 to 5 years. And in 2013, on the initiative of President Vladimir Putin, 9 articles of the Basic Law were rewritten at once, instead of two higher courts (the Supreme Court and the Supreme Arbitration Court) creating one, Supreme Court, and the right to appoint prosecutors of the constituent entities of the Federation was transferred from the Prosecutor General to the President.

Presidential press secretary Dmitry Peskov, however, already said today that the head of the Constitutional Court can write whatever he thinks, but “the Presidential Administration is not taking any action in this direction.”

But the sediment, as they say, remains. “Problem 2024” is rising over the country, like the red ominous sun at the end of the Soviet film “The Elusive Avengers.” Political scientists speak out loud, and representatives political elite silently they are tormented by the question “how?”. Therefore, every publicly uttered by a high official the word “about the Constitution” is perceived precisely in this context.

In addition, for some reason, we always did “spot editing” in the year of “round dates”, on the 15th and 20th birthdays. Bad sign: in December 2018, the Basic Law will turn 25.

The head of state himself last answered a question about the Constitution immediately after the elections on March 18. “For now I am not planning any constitutional reforms,” that’s all he said. The word “yet” attracts attention. Especially if we remember that in 2008 and 2013 they forgot to warn society in advance...

And the frightened crow is afraid of the bush.

Aviation bombs or aerial bombs are one of the main types aviation ammunition, which appeared almost immediately after the birth of combat aviation. An aerial bomb is dropped from an airplane or other aircraft and reaches the target under the influence of gravity.

Currently, aerial bombs have become one of the main means of destroying the enemy; in any armed conflict of recent decades (in which aviation was used, of course), their consumption amounted to tens of thousands of tons.

Modern aerial bombs are used to destroy enemy personnel, armored vehicles, warships, enemy fortifications (including underground bunkers), and civilian and military infrastructure. The main damaging factors of aerial bombs are the blast wave, fragments, heat. Exist special types bombs that contain various types of toxic substances to destroy enemy personnel.

Since the advent of combat aviation, it has been developed great amount types of aerial bombs, some of which are still in use today (for example, high-explosive aerial bombs), while others have long been withdrawn from service and have become part of history (rotational dispersal aerial bomb). Most types of modern aerial bombs were invented before or during World War II. However, current aerial bombs are still different from their predecessors - they have become much “smarter” and more deadly.

Guided aerial bombs (UAB) are one of the most common types of modern high-precision weapons; they combine significant warhead power and high accuracy in hitting a target. In general, it should be noted that the use of high-precision weapons is one of the main directions in the development of strike aviation; the era of carpet bombing is gradually becoming a thing of the past.

If you ask the average person what types of aerial bombs there are, he is unlikely to be able to name more than two or three varieties. In fact, the arsenal of modern bomber aircraft is huge, it includes several dozen various types ammunition. They differ not only in caliber, the nature of the destructive effect, the weight of the explosive and the purpose. The classification of aircraft bombs is quite complex and is based on several principles at once, and in different countries ah she has some differences.

However, before moving on to descriptions of specific types of aircraft bombs, a few words should be said about the history of the development of this ammunition.

Story

The idea of ​​using aircraft in military affairs was born almost immediately after their appearance. At the same time, the simplest and most logical way to harm an adversary from the air was to drop something deadly on his head. The first attempts to use airplanes as bombers were made even before the outbreak of World War I - in 1911, during the Italo-Turkish War, the Italians dropped several bombs on Turkish troops.

During the First World War, in addition to bombs, metal darts (flechettes) were also used to hit ground targets, which were more or less effective against enemy personnel.

The first aerial bombs were often used hand grenades, which the pilot simply threw from his cockpit. It is clear that the accuracy and effectiveness of such bombing left much to be desired. And the planes themselves of the initial period of the First World War were not very suitable for the role of bombers; airships, capable of carrying several tons of bombs and covering a distance of 2-4 thousand km, were much more effective.

The first full-fledged WWI bomber was the Russian aircraft “Ilya Muromets”. Soon, similar multi-engine bomber aircraft appeared in service with all parties to the conflict. At the same time, work was underway to improve their main means of destroying the enemy - aerial bombs. The designers were faced with several tasks, the main one of which was the ammunition fuse - it was necessary to ensure that it would work in right moment. The stability of the first bombs was insufficient - they fell to the ground sideways. The first aerial bombs were often made from casings artillery shells of different calibers, but their shape was not very suitable for precision bombing, and they were very expensive.

After the creation of the first heavy bombers, the military needed ammunition of serious calibers that could cause really serious damage to the enemy. Already by mid-1915 in service Russian army bombs of 240 and even 400 kg caliber appeared.

At the same time, the first samples of incendiary bombs based on white phosphorus appeared. Russian chemists have managed to develop a cheap way to obtain this scarce substance.

In 1915, the Germans began to use the first fragmentation bombs; a little later, similar ammunition appeared in the arsenal of other countries participating in the conflict. Russian inventor Dashkevich came up with a “barometric” bomb, the fuse of which was triggered at a certain height, scattering a large amount of shrapnel over a certain area.

Summarizing the above, we can come to an unambiguous conclusion: in just a few years of the First World War, aircraft bombs and bombers went an incredible way - from metal arrows to half-ton bombs of a completely modern form with an effective fuse and an in-flight stabilization system.

During the period between the world wars, bomber aviation developed rapidly, the range and payload of aircraft became larger, and the design of aircraft ammunition was improved. At this time, new types of aerial bombs were developed.

Some of them should be discussed in more detail. In 1939, the Soviet-Finnish war began and almost immediately USSR aviation began massive bombing of Finnish cities. Among other ammunition, so-called rotary dispersal bombs (RRAB) were used. It can be safely called a prototype of future cluster bombs.

A rotary dispersal bomb was a thin-walled container containing a large number of small bombs: high-explosive, fragmentation or incendiary. Thanks to the special design of the tail, the rotary dispersal bomb rotated in flight and scattered submunitions over a large area. Since the USSR assured that soviet planes do not bomb the cities of Finland, but drop food to the starving, the Finns wittily nicknamed the rotary-dispersal bombs “Molotov’s bread bins.”

During Polish campaign The Germans were the first to use real cluster bombs, which in their design are practically no different from modern ones. They were thin-walled ammunition that detonated at the required height and released a large number of small bombs.

Second world war can safely be called the first military conflict in which combat aviation played a decisive role. The German Ju 87 Stuka attack aircraft became a symbol of the new military concept - blitzkrieg, and American and British bombers successfully implemented the Douhet doctrine, wiping it into rubble German cities along with their inhabitants.

At the end of the war, the Germans developed and successfully used for the first time the new kind aviation ammunition - guided aerial bombs. With their help, for example, the flagship of the Italian fleet, the newest battleship Roma, was sunk.

Of the new types of aerial bombs that first began to be used during the Second World War, it is worth noting anti-tank, as well as jet (or rocket) aerial bombs. Anti-tank bombs are a special type of aircraft ammunition designed to combat enemy armored vehicles. They usually had a small caliber and cumulative combat unit. Their example can be soviet bombs PTAB, which were actively used by Red Army aviation against German tanks.

Rocket bombs are a type of aircraft munition equipped with a rocket engine, which gives it additional acceleration. The principle of their operation was simple: the “penetrating” ability of a bomb depends on its mass and height of release. In the USSR before the war, in order to guarantee the destruction of a battleship, it was necessary to drop a two-ton bomb from a height of four kilometers. However, if you install a simple rocket accelerator on the ammunition, then both parameters can be reduced several times. It was never possible to produce such ammunition then, but the rocket acceleration method has found application in modern concrete-piercing aerial bombs.

On August 6, 1945, a new era in the development of mankind began: it became acquainted with a new destructive weapons- nuclear bomb. This type of aircraft munition is still in service around the world, although the importance of nuclear bombs has decreased significantly.

Combat aviation continuously developed during the period Cold War, together with it, aerial bombs were also improved. However, nothing fundamentally new was invented during this period. Guided aerial bombs and cluster munitions were improved, and bombs with a volumetric detonating warhead (vacuum bombs) appeared.

Since about the mid-70s, aerial bombs have become increasingly precision weapons. While during the Vietnam campaign UABs accounted for only 1% of the total number of aerial bombs dropped American aviation on the enemy, then during Operation Desert Storm (1990) this figure increased to 8%, and during the bombing of Yugoslavia - to 24%. In 2003, 70% of American bombs in Iraq were precision weapons.

The improvement of aviation ammunition continues to this day.

Air bombs, their design features and classification

An aircraft bomb is a type of ammunition that consists of a body, a stabilizer, ammunition and one or more fuses. Most often, the body has an oval-cylindrical shape with a conical tail. The casings of fragmentation, high-explosive and high-explosive fragmentation bombs (OFAB) are manufactured in such a way that, upon explosion, they give maximum amount fragments. In the bottom and bow parts of the body there are usually special cups for installing fuses; some types of bombs also have side fuses.

The explosives used in aircraft bombs vary widely. Most often this is TNT or its alloys with hexogen, ammonium nitrate, etc. In incendiary ammunition, the warhead is filled with incendiary compounds or flammable liquids.

For suspension on the body of aerial bombs there are special ears, with the exception of small-caliber ammunition, which is placed in cassettes or bundles.

The stabilizer is designed to ensure stable flight of ammunition, reliable fuse operation and more effective target destruction. The stabilizers of modern aerial bombs can have a complex design: box-shaped, feathery or cylindrical. Aircraft bombs used from low altitudes often have umbrella fins that deploy immediately after release. Their task is to slow down the flight of the ammunition to allow the aircraft to move to a safe distance from the point of explosion.

Modern aircraft bombs are equipped with different types of fuses: impact, non-contact, remote, etc.

If we talk about classifications of aircraft bombs, there are several of them. All bombs are divided into:

  • basic;
  • auxiliary.

Basic aircraft bombs are designed to directly destroy various targets.

Auxiliary ones contribute to the solution of one or another combat mission, or they are used in training troops. These include lighting, smoke, propaganda, signal, navigational, training and simulation.

Basic aerial bombs can be divided according to the type of damage they cause:

  1. Regular. These include ammunition filled with conventional explosives or incendiary substances. Targets are hit due to a blast wave, fragments, and high temperature.
  2. Chemical. This category of aerial bombs includes ammunition filled with chemical agents. Chemical bombs have never been used on a large scale.
  3. Bacteriological. They are stuffed with biological pathogens of various diseases or their carriers and have also never been used on a large scale.
  4. Nuclear. They have a nuclear or thermonuclear warhead; damage occurs due to a shock wave, light radiation, radiation, or electromagnetic wave.

There is a classification of aerial bombs based on a narrower definition of lethality; it is used most often. According to it, aerial bombs are:

  • high explosive;
  • high-explosive fragmentation;
  • fragmentation;
  • high-explosive penetrating (have a thick body);
  • concrete-breaking;
  • armor-piercing;
  • incendiary;
  • high explosive incendiary;
  • poisonous;
  • volumetric detonating;
  • fragmentation-poisonous.

The list goes on.

The main characteristics of aerial bombs include: caliber, efficiency indicators, filling factor, characteristic time and range of conditions combat use.

One of the main characteristics of any aerial bomb is its caliber. This is the mass of the ammunition in kilograms. Quite conventionally, bombs are divided into small, medium and large caliber ammunition. Which particular group a particular aerial bomb belongs to largely depends on its type. So, for example, a 100-kilogram high-explosive bomb is classified as a small caliber, and its fragmentation or incendiary counterpart is classified as medium.

The filling factor is the ratio of the mass of a bomb's explosive material to its total weight. For thin-walled high-explosive ammunition it is higher (about 0.7), while for thick-walled high-explosive ammunition - fragmentation and concrete-piercing bombs - it is lower (about 0.1-0.2).

Characteristic time is a parameter that is associated with the ballistic properties of a bomb. This is the time of its fall when dropped from an aircraft flying horizontally at a speed of 40 m/s from a height of 2 thousand meters.

The expected effectiveness is also a rather arbitrary parameter for aircraft bombs. It's different for different types these ammunitions. The assessment may be related to the size of the crater, the number of fires, the thickness of the pierced armor, the area of ​​the affected area, etc.

The range of combat use conditions shows the characteristics at which bombing is possible: maximum and minimum speed, altitude.

Types of aerial bombs

The most commonly used aerial bombs are high explosives. Even a small 50 kg bomb contains more explosive than a 210 mm gun shell. The reason is very simple - the bomb does not need to withstand the enormous loads that a projectile in a gun barrel is subjected to, so it can be made thin-walled. The projectile body requires precise and complex processing, which is absolutely not necessary for an aerial bomb. Accordingly, the cost of the latter is much lower.

It should be noted that using high-explosive bombs of very large calibers (above 1 thousand kg) is not always rational. As the mass of the explosive increases, the damage radius does not increase too significantly. Therefore, it is much more effective to use several medium-power ammunition over a large area.

Another common type of aerial bomb is fragmentation bomb. The main purpose of defeating such bombs is manpower enemy or civilian population. These ammunitions are designed to promote large quantities fragments after the explosion. They usually have a notch on inside casings or ready-made submunitions (most often balls or needles) placed inside the casing. When a hundred-kilogram fragmentation bomb explodes, it produces 5-6 thousand small fragments.

As a rule, fragmentation bombs have a smaller caliber than high-explosive bombs. A significant disadvantage of this type of ammunition is the fact that it is easy to hide from a fragmentation bomb. Any field fortification (trench, cell) or building is suitable for this. Nowadays, cluster fragmentation munitions, which are a container filled with small fragmentation submunitions, are more common.

Such bombs cause significant casualties, with civilians suffering the most from their effects. That's why similar weapons prohibited by many conventions.

Concrete bombs. This is a very interesting type of ammunition; its predecessor is considered to be the so-called seismic bombs, developed by the British at the beginning of World War II. The idea was this: make a very large bomb (5.4 tons - Tallboy and 10 tons - Grand Slam), raise it higher - about eight kilometers - and drop it on the head of the adversary. The bomb, accelerating to enormous speed, penetrates deep underground and explodes there. As a result, a small earthquake occurs, which destroys buildings over a large area.

Nothing came of this idea. The underground explosion, of course, shook the soil, but clearly not enough to collapse the buildings. But underground structures he destroyed very effectively. Therefore, already at the end of the war, British aviation used such bombs specifically to destroy bunkers.

Today, concrete-piercing bombs are often equipped with a rocket booster so that the ammunition gains greater speed and penetrates deeper into the ground.

Vacuum bombs. These aircraft munitions became one of the few post-war inventions, although the Germans were still interested in volumetric explosion munitions at the end of World War II. The Americans began to use them en masse during the Vietnam campaign.

The principle of operation of volumetric explosion aircraft ammunition - this is a more correct name - is quite simple. The warhead of the bomb contains a substance that, upon detonation, is detonated by a special charge and turns into an aerosol, after which the second charge sets it on fire. Such an explosion is several times more powerful than a normal one, and here’s why: ordinary TNT (or other explosives) contains both an explosive and an oxidizing agent, a “vacuum” bomb uses air oxygen for oxidation (combustion).

True, an explosion of this type is of the “burning” type, but in its effect it is in many ways superior to conventional ammunition.

If you have any questions, leave them in the comments below the article. We or our visitors will be happy to answer them

Etymology of the concept

The Russian word “bomb” comes from the Greek. βόμβος (bombos), onomatopoeia, an onomatopoeic word that had in Greek approximately the same meaning as the word “babakh” in Russian. In the European group of languages, the term has the same root “bomb” (German. bombe, English bomb, fr. bombe, Spanish bomba), the source of which, in turn, is Lat. bombus, the Latin analogue of the Greek onomatopoeia.

According to one hypothesis, the term was originally associated with battering guns, which first made a terrible roar, and only then caused destruction. In the future, with the improvement of warfare technologies, the logical chain war-roar-of-destruction became associated with other types of weapons. The term experienced a rebirth at the end of the 14th and beginning of the 15th centuries, when gunpowder entered the arena of war. At that time, the technical effect of its use was negligible (especially in comparison with the mechanical types of throwing weapons that had reached perfection), but the roar it produced was an extraordinary phenomenon and often had an effect on the enemy comparable to a shower of arrows.

Story

1. Artillery grenade. 2. Bomb. 3. Buckshot grenade. XVII-XIX centuries

  1. by purpose - for combat and non-combat. The latter include smoke, lighting, photo aircraft bombs (lighting for night photography), daytime (colored smoke) and night (colored fire) orientation-signal, orientation-sea (create a colored fluorescent spot on the water and colored fire; in the West, orientation-signal and orientation-naval bombs have common name marker), propaganda (stuffed with propaganda material), practical (for training bombing - do not contain explosives or contain a very small charge; practical bombs that do not contain a charge are most often made of cement) and imitation (simulate a nuclear bomb);
  1. by type of active material - conventional, nuclear, chemical, toxin, bacteriological (traditionally, bombs loaded with pathogenic viruses or their carriers also belong to the category of bacteriological, although strictly speaking a virus is not a bacterium);
  2. according to the nature of the damaging effect:
    • fragmentation (damaging effect mainly from fragments);
    • high-explosive fragmentation (fragmentation, high-explosive and high-explosive action; in the West such ammunition is called general purpose bombs);
    • high-explosive (high-explosive and blasting action);
    • penetrating high-explosive - they are also high-explosive thick-walled, they are also (Western designation) “seismic bombs” (with high explosive action);
    • concrete-piercing (in the West such ammunition is called semi-armor-piercing) inert (does not contain an explosive charge, hitting the target only due to kinetic energy);
    • concrete-breaking explosives (kinetic energy and blasting action);
    • armor-piercing explosive (also with kinetic energy and blasting action, but having a more durable body);
    • armor-piercing cumulative (cumulative jet);
    • armor-piercing fragmentation / cumulative fragmentation (cumulative jet and fragments);
    • armor-piercing based on the principle of “shock core”;
    • incendiary (flame and temperature);
    • high-explosive incendiary (high-explosive and blasting action, flame and temperature);
    • high-explosive fragmentation-incendiary (fragmentation, high-explosive and high-explosive action, flame and temperature);
    • incendiary-smoke (damaging effects of flame and temperature; in addition, such a bomb produces smoke in the area);
    • poisonous / chemical and toxin (poisonous substance / agent);
    • poisonous smoke bombs (officially these bombs were called “smoking aviation poisonous smoke bombs”);
    • fragmentation-poisonous/fragmentation-chemical (fragmentation and explosive agents);
    • infectious action/bacteriological (directly by pathogenic microorganisms or their carriers from insects and small rodents);
    • Conventional nuclear (at first called atomic) and thermonuclear bombs (initially in the USSR they were called atomic-hydrogen) are traditionally allocated to a separate category not only according to the active material, but also according to the damaging effect, although, strictly speaking, they should be considered high-explosive incendiary (with adjusted for additional damaging factors of a nuclear explosion - radioactive radiation and radioactive fallout) of ultra-high power. However, there are also nuclear bombs enhanced radiation" - their main thing damaging factor is already radioactive radiation, specifically the flow of neutrons formed during the explosion (in connection with which such nuclear bombs received the common name “neutron”).
    • Also in a separate category are volumetric detonating bombs (also known as volumetric explosion, thermobaric, vacuum and fuel bombs).
  3. by the nature of the target (this classification is not always applied) - for example, anti-bunker (Bunker Buster), anti-submarine, anti-tank and bridge bombs (the latter were intended for action on bridges and viaducts);
  4. according to the method of delivery to the target - rocket (the bomb in this case is used as a missile warhead), aviation, ship/boat, artillery;
  5. by mass, expressed in kilograms or pounds (for non-nuclear bombs) or power, expressed in kilotons/megatons) of TNT equivalent (for nuclear bombs). It should be noted that the caliber of a non-nuclear bomb is not its actual weight, but its correspondence to the dimensions of a certain standard weapon (which is usually a high-explosive bomb of the same caliber). The discrepancy between caliber and weight can be quite large - for example, the SAB-50-15 illumination bomb had a 50-kg caliber and weighed only 14.4-14.8 kg (a discrepancy of 3.5 times). On the other hand, the FAB-1500-2600TS aerial bomb (TS - “thick-walled”) has a 1500-kg caliber and weighs as much as 2600 kg (the discrepancy is more than 1.7 times);
  6. according to the design of the warhead - monoblock, modular and cluster (initially the latter were called “rotational dispersal aircraft bombs”/RRAB in the USSR).
  7. in terms of controllability - into uncontrollable (free-falling, in Western terminology - gravitational - and gliding) and controlled (adjustable).

Reactive depth charges (in fact, unguided missiles with a warhead in the form of a depth charge), which are in service with the Russian Navy and the navies of a number of other countries, are classified by firing range (in hundreds of meters) - for example, the RSL-60 (RSL - reactive depth charge) is fired ( however, it is more correct to say - launched) from the RBU-6000 rocket launcher at a range of up to 6000 m, RGB-10 from the RBU-1000 - at 1000 m, etc.

Bomb consumption in major wars

Development of bomb production technologies and new types of bombs

Safety precautions when handling bombs

Bomb disposal

Bombs and terrorism

see also

Literature


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Synonyms

    See what “Bomb” is in other dictionaries: Bombing, eh...

    Russian word stress - (French bombe, Italian and Spanish bomba, from Greek bombus dull-burning). 1) a cast iron ball filled with gunpowder and thrown with a mortar; it breaks either during its flight or during its fall; also an explosive projectile in a metal shell for manual... ... Dictionary foreign words

Russian language Being the main source of energy for the bomb and its mass. A bomb consists of a body (shell), a charge - a mass of explosive material, and controls. Bombs are divided according to the type of explosive material used in them as an energy source, by caliber or conventional power expressed in kilotons (for nuclear charges), by specific effects, for example - fragmentation, neutron, electromagnetic, chemical, bacteriological, lighting, photobomb, incendiary, etc. By type - plantable (mine, land mine, etc.), aviation, deep, as well as missile warheads (rocket bomb).

Bomb's purpose

A bomb is one of the most formidable types of weapons, and accordingly, the main purpose of this weapon is to kill and destroy. Although in this series there is also a neutral purpose, for example, lighting and photobomb - for illuminating large areas and photographing. The bomb can also be a source of energy to “pump” a laser, for example an X-ray laser, or a laser operating in the optical range. The power of a bomb charge can range from a few grams to a power in TNT equivalent exceeding 50 megatons. With a powerful explosion in the history of civilization is the thermonuclear explosion carried out by the USSR in 1961 and called “Kuzka’s mother”. Modern technologies make it possible to create bombs of almost unlimited power, but such a need does not yet exist.

There is also the term bomb in laboratory technology, for example, calorimetric bomb (for measuring the heat of combustion of substances, etc.), “lead bomb” (for measuring the brisance of explosives). Thus, the word bomb has at least two different concepts, the first of which is a type of weapon, and the second of which means a high-pressure vessel.

History of the bomb and its names

Types of bombs by purpose and specificity

  • Aviation: discharge from an aircraft carrier. Blast wave, fragments.
  • Deep: discharge to a certain depth. Blast wave, fragments.
  • Chemical: throwing different ways, bookmark. Damage caused by sprayed chemicals.
  • Volumetric explosion: dumping and filling. Blast wave.
  • Bacteriological: dumping and backfilling. Damage from sprayed viruses and bacteria.
  • Electromagnetic: reset and bookmark. Defeat of electronic equipment.
  • Lighting: reset, rocket launch. Lighting of large areas, photography.
  • Mine: laying in the surface layers of the earth and building.

Delivery vehicles and bombing methods

Main means of delivering bombs:

  • Manual delivery: Throwing (grenades, small land mines, etc.), sapper placement of charges into the ground or structures (mines, land mines).
  • Automobile delivery: transportation of a charge in bulk or a bomb using vehicles without unloading or with partial unloading (military special operations and acts of sabotage by the enemy or terrorists).
  • Aircraft bombing: targeted (laser or radio-guided), or “carpet drop” of a single charge or group of charges on a target, dropping charges by parachute, delivery of charges by unmanned robotic aircraft, high-altitude mining (suspension on balloons).
  • Torpedoing: releasing a torpedo equipped with a warhead at a target (surface).
  • Depth bombing: dropping deep anti-submarine bombs to a certain depth (direct bombing or mining of depths), also releasing underwater anti-submarine torpedoes or mining with submarines and leaving the mining zone.
  • Missile delivery: Bombardment of charges of increased caliber, or nuclear charges of remote targets (including radio-guided or laser high-precision guidance).
  • Orbital bombing: bombardment of ground targets with charges of increased caliber and power, and nuclear charges.

Famous bombs in history

  • FAB-100: aviation (USSR).
  • FAB-500: aviation (USSR).
  • FAB-5000 (the largest aerial bomb (USSR) of the Second World War).
  • FAB-9000.
  • MOAB: (USA).
  • "Little Boy" (Mk-I "Little Boy"): first atomic bomb dropped on Japan (Hiroshima) August 6, 1945 (8:15). (USA).
  • "Fat Man" (Mk-III "Fat Man"): the second atomic bomb dropped on Japan (


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