Can aircraft bombs explode ?

[Darkwolf]

I fell like i'm about to say the most stupid question ever. I'm sorry if this was already discussed.

 

Can an aircraft ordonnance explose while in flight, if damaged by ground fire/missiles ?

 

Let's say i fly an A10C with s***load of MK82. Can one of those explode (with me included) if it get hit by AAA fire ?

 

I'm not sure if its the case in game, neither if its possible IRL.

[mvsgas]

In RL, highly unlikely. Without the fuses being armed the bombs shouldn't blow up. Accident do happen. In DCS, no AFAIK.

[Heater]

Well, In theory yes they could, after all it is after high explosives, But with that said the bombs / missiles are not "armed" until they leave the rack / launcher if you look closely you will see an arming wire / lanyard attached, that is what arms the fuses once the bomb is far enough away for the aircraft, and for the missiles the have an accelerometer in them if I am not mistaken.

Edited November 22, 2012 by Heater
spelling :)

[Topo]

During WW2 a B25 explode in flight during a bombing run over Savona, after being hit by AAA fire with bomb bay open and (i think) bombs armed.

Piece of this aircraft has been removed from wings and fuselage of other bombers near the explosion.

Agree with mvsgas, highly unlikely in normal conditions i think.

 

Saluti and sorry for my english...

[maturin]

On the other hand, wouldn't rocket fuel in Mavericks and Hydras be more likely to react with incendiary impacts?

[BRooDJeRo]

Solid fuel should ignite with heat and pressure as an ignitor i'd say. I guess it depends on the impactspeed, angle and impactsurface. Somebody radio White Sands missile testing site pls.

Edited November 22, 2012 by BRooDJeRo

[Bushmanni]

If HE AAA shell explodes on contact with a bomb, shouldn't that be enough to set off the explosives in the bomb?

[NineLine]

If HE AAA shell explodes on contact with a bomb, shouldn't that be enough to set off the explosives in the bomb?

 

 

If a shell explodes there, even if it doesnt set off anything on the aircraft, probably end in walking home anyways :)

[Beagle One]

Ammunition ignition by penetration hits does happen in tanks quite often so there is no reason it cant happen with airplanes.

[Para_Bellum]

The main problem with tank ammo is the propellant cartridge which is very vulnerable to damage. A steel-walled bomb is FAR less likely to blow up when hit by shrapnel or light AA fire.

 

During Desert Storm there were several accounts of A-10 missiles cooking off in the air due to enemy fire though.

Edited November 22, 2012 by Para_Bellum

[OutOnTheOP]

Worth noting: the US Navy EOD team that worked with my Troop in Iraq carried an M14 sniper rifle for the explicit purpose of detonating artillery shell IEDs. Basically, all the kinetic energy of the impact is turned into a shockwave and heat; this in turn detonates the explosive filler.

 

Generally, artillery shells have a thicker casing than an aerial bomb, as they need to withstand higher pressures and accellerations.

 

That said, using the 7.62x51mm round to detonate artillery shells was iffy, especially beyond 100 meters, where the bullet lost too much velocity and didn't have the kinetic energy to get the job done. 7.62x51mm usually resulted in a "low-order" detonation, where the explosive burned off/ created a weak explosion. Sometimes it will fail to ignite the explosives at all, and simply destabilizes them, which just makes it more dangerous for EOD to approach the explosive to place a demolition charge. For this reason, shooting at IEDs was generally frowned upon.

 

I can say from personal experience that the kinetic energy from a .50 cal WILL detonate artillery shells, and will almost always go "high-order".

 

It's worth noting that this only pertains to KE penetrating rounds (standard bullets), not explosive cannon fire, which likely does not have adequate penetration to pierce the bomb casing with enough force to detonate the explosives (I mean, unless we're talking 100mm AA fire... but at that point, it probably doesn't matter if the bomb detonates or not; the aircraft is done). It should also be noted that anything less than a 12.7 or 14.5mm round is highly, HIGHLY unlikely to retain enough velocity after reaching the aircraft.

Edited November 22, 2012 by OutOnTheOP

[OutOnTheOP]

During WW2 a B25 explode in flight during a bombing run over Savona, after being hit by AAA fire with bomb bay open and (i think) bombs armed.

Piece of this aircraft has been removed from wings and fuselage of other bombers near the explosion.

Agree with mvsgas, highly unlikely in normal conditions i think.

 

Saluti and sorry for my english...

 

Different case, though. I'm not sure about the B25, but I know that in the B24, the bombardier or flight engineer manually removed the arming wires from the bombs before starting the bombing run. This meant the bombs were live before dropping, and if they had to crash land with bombs still aboard after pulling the pins, chances were excellent they'd detonate. (Reference the book Into the Fire, about the Ploesti raid). So these bombs could have gone off from something hitting the fuse, not neccessarily from cooking off.

[Hamblue]

I would hope they would be smart enough to drop the armed bombs in a safe place to prevent explosion as well as lighten the weight of the plane in an emergency landing.

[Eihort]

They most likely would drop them at the first sign of an in-flight emergency to lighten the plane.

 

I think there's some confusion with "armed". Standard GP bombs are packed with HE. That's always 'ready' to go by it's very nature. What isn't is the initial device to set off that HE. Obviously the HE is pretty stable as you want it to survive delivery, whether on a plane, missile, or shell. So you have an initial small explosive to set the larger stuff off. Generally that's not armed until bomb actually drops. In most cases it was a little pinwheel that caught the air and rotated at high speed. Once detonation parameters were met, boom.

 

There are a wide variety of warhead and bomb types and just as many types of fuses (i.e. devices that determine when and how exactly the explosives detonate).

[ENO]

Strangely... I noted this possibility a little while ago- while performing an attack on a convoy I began taking fire from a Shilka... I released the bomb and mere seconds later I exploded in mid-air... and then the message came in that "Eno killed Eno."

 

Hmmmm...

[mjeh]

Strangely... I noted this possibility a little while ago- while performing an attack on a convoy I began taking fire from a Shilka... I released the bomb and mere seconds later I exploded in mid-air... and then the message came in that "Eno killed Eno."

 

Hmmmm...

 

if you pull negative Gs while dropping bombs it is quite possible to bomb yourself. :)

[OutOnTheOP]

They most likely would drop them at the first sign of an in-flight emergency to lighten the plane.

 

I think there's some confusion with "armed". Standard GP bombs are packed with HE. That's always 'ready' to go by it's very nature. What isn't is the initial device to set off that HE. Obviously the HE is pretty stable as you want it to survive delivery, whether on a plane, missile, or shell. So you have an initial small explosive to set the larger stuff off. Generally that's not armed until bomb actually drops. In most cases it was a little pinwheel that caught the air and rotated at high speed. Once detonation parameters were met, boom.

 

There are a wide variety of warhead and bomb types and just as many types of fuses (i.e. devices that determine when and how exactly the explosives detonate).

 

Of course they'd do everything they could to get rid of the bombs, but sometimes battle damage would prevent the bombs from dropping, and in the case of the Ploesti raid (the topic of the specific work I was citing), the bombers were flying at 50-200 feet AGL; if they had to ditch, they might not have time (or altitude) to dump the bombs.