The Daisy Cutter and the Lazy Dog

[Per Ekman]

From d94...@juodas.nada.kth.se (Per Ekman)

Back to the source...

"BLU-82 demolition bomb, 6,804kg (15,000lb) designed to clear instant
helicopter landing zones in jungle; BLU-82/B 'Big Blue 82' refined
version of the BLU-82 with 5,715kg (12,600lb) of GSX gelled slurry blast
explosive triggered by a 970mm (38in) nose stand-off probe"

-From 'The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Aircraft Armament' by Bill Gunston.

An FAE with a nose probe trigger sounds unlikely at best.
So, is the Daisy Cutter an FAE? (ie is Gunston wrong, is Newsweek (below)
wrong by saying that the BLU-82 is the Daisy Cutter, or have I missed
something?)

'...the "Blue-82" bomb. At 15,000 pounds, the bomb is the size of a
Volkswagen Beetle. Also called the Daisy Cutter, the BLU-82 was used to
carve out and level airfields in Vietnam.'

'The day before their target area had been rained with leaflets warning
the soldiers below: "Tomorrow if you don't surrender we're going to drop
on you the largest conventional weapon in the world." The Iraqis who dared
to sleep that night found out the allies weren't kidding. The explosion
of a Daisy Cutter looks like an atomic bomb detonating. In the southwest
corner of Kuwait that night, an enormous mushroom cloud flared into the
dark. Sound travels for miles in the barren desert, and soon Iraqi
radio nets along the border crackled with traffic. Col. Jesse Johnson,
Schwarzkopf's special-operations commander, cabled a message back to the
U.S. Special Operations Command headquarters in Florida: "We're not too sure
how you say 'Jesus Christ' in Iraqi." A British SAS commando team on a
secret reconnaissance mission near the explosion frantically radioed back
to its headquarters: "Sir, the blokes have just nuked Kuwait!"
The next day a Combat Talon swept over the bomb site for another leaflet
drop with a follow-up message: "You have just been hit with the largest
conventional bomb in the world. More are on the way." The victims below
didn't need much more convincing.'

Newsweek June 17, 1991

On another note...
In the book 'Ground Attack - Vietnam: The Marines Who Controlled the Skies'
by J.M. Moriarty the weapon Lazy Dog is described. It was a canister bomb
that dispersed thousands of .45 caliber bullets with small stabilizing
fins, letting them fall from enough height so that they were more than
lethal when reaching the ground. One captured VC had said that he was in
a patrol in the jungle when there was a sudden wooshing sound and all the
leaves fell from the trees and he was the only one still standing.
The weapon was apparently devasting for VC/NVA morale but it was
taken out of use because it was deemed inhuman.
What I wonder is
1. Why was this weapon more inhuman than for example a napalm bomb?
2. At what altitude did this weapon have to be dropped in order for the
bullets to reach enough speed before hitting the ground?
3. If the drop altitude was more than a few hundred feet, would it be
possible to hit a target with any sort of accuracy in other than ideal
conditions? (on a windy day for instance)
4. Is this weapon still in the US inventory?

--
Per Ekman email:d94...@nada.kth.se http://www.nada.kth.se/~d94-pek/
**********************************************************************
'Bit like riding a bike really. Once you've tried it without the saddle,
you never forget how the bell works.'
-The Book Of Ultimate Truth
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'I will kill you until you are dead!' -Hot Shots 2
......................................................................

[T.M.Haddock]

From tmh...@decster.uta.edu (T.M.Haddock)

Per Ekman <d94...@juodas.nada.kth.se> wrote:
>An FAE with a nose probe trigger sounds unlikely at best.
>So, is the Daisy Cutter an FAE? (ie is Gunston wrong, is Newsweek (below)
>wrong by saying that the BLU-82 is the Daisy Cutter, or have I missed
>something?)

Technically speaking....

The term "Daisy Cutter" refers more to the type of fuze used, not the
type of bomb used.

Take a standard MK82 bomb, attach a contact fuze on a 4' pipe, and
you have the original "daisy cutters" - bombs that detonated above
ground.

Take the same MK82 bomb, attach a delayed action fuze, and you have
the original "rototiller" - bombs that detonated below ground.

Therefore, any bomb with a stand-off probe or proximity fuze is a
"Daisy Cutter".

And the BLU-82 is considered THE Daisy Cutter. ;)

TRAVIS

[Gregory Sudderth]

From l...@netcom.com (Gregory Sudderth)

In article <D6M6M...@ranger.daytonoh.attgis.com>,

Per Ekman <d94...@juodas.nada.kth.se> wrote:
>
>On another note...
>In the book 'Ground Attack - Vietnam: The Marines Who Controlled the Skies'
>by J.M. Moriarty the weapon Lazy Dog is described. It was a canister bomb
>that dispersed thousands of .45 caliber bullets with small stabilizing

I read that a similar flechette was used in WW2, and I have a couple
in my desk measured at .47 inch, and little more than an inch long. Dull
metal appearing to be steel. Got them from a waxpaper-wrapped cylinder
full of them with a wire attached. My Dad said they attached to bomb
racks (of what I have no idea) and the wire ripped them open coming
off the rack. Souns like a disasterous way to drop a munition, but
the bombers of the era were going slower so who knows.

I remember tearing them open, the one we went into was about 4 feet long,
and about 18 inches in diameter. It was US-marked. It weighed so much
that us kids could only roll it.

G.

--

Greg Sudderth - l...@swell.com - l...@netcom.com
"I'm only here for the gas...."