Carlton Meyer
Pilots must rely on simple flares, chaff rounds, and rapid maneuvers to evade ground fire. Since new attack aircraft cost over $60 million each, many experts think that modern radar and heat-seeking missiles have made close air support and even interdiction missions too risky. Our military can make a quantum leap in the Suppression of Enemy Air Defenses (SEAD) by developing a Timed Universal Rearward Destroyer (TURD) airburst bomb.
A TURD would be a MK 82 500lbs general purpose low drag bomb with a BSU-49/B high drag kit called "ballute" which inflate and act as a parachute to rapidly slow the forward movement of the bomb. Drag kits are used to prevent aircraft from being damage by their own bombs during low-level attack missions. However, if these bombs were also fitted with a timed detonator for airburst, these "TURDs" would prove extremely valuable in air combat operations.
In high threat environments, an attack aircraft could release a TURD after it pulls away from a target. The TURD exploding in mid-air behind an attack aircraft may not destroy enemy SAMs directly, but the airburst of a 500lbs bomb would attract heat seeking missiles, blind radar systems with "snow", and distract the aim of AAA gunners.
TURDs would also provide an edge in air combat. Pilots could take bogeys head-on and drop a TURD just before they pass, leaving an exploding 500lbs "gift" for the bogey to fly into. TURDs would also prove valuable against fighters which maneuver behind. A pilot could pull up and release a TURD to explode near his pursuers.
Some fighter pilots may dislike TURDs because they seem unsportsmanlike, and incorporating them in adversary training will prove difficult. However, modern simulators can be programmed to evaluate the revolutionary effect of TURDs on modern fighter tactics. Meanwhile, existing bombs should be modified to study TURD tactics.
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e-mail May 1998