Tag Archives: cold war

Technology

Weapon I-D: Mark 82, Cold War & beyond

Video

Bombing-up an S-3A Viking with Mk82s. U.S. Navy photo by Photographer’s Mate First Class Michael D.P. Flynn, 01FEB1988.

The Mark 82 (aka BDU) is a 5-hundred pound/227-kilogram unguided ‘vehicle’ (practice bombs about 400lbs/181kg) designed to hit your enemy with 192 pounds/87-kilograms of Tritonal high explosive. It was first used during the U.S. occupation of Vietnam.  It’s part of the Mark 80 series of low-drag bombs, from Mk81 to Mk84, of similar shape but increasing size.

Mark 82s on Kandahar Airfield, Afghanistan. U.S. Air Force photo by Staff Sergeant Stephen Schester, 27APR2010.

The shape and size of the standard fins have changed over the decades, and the type of fins used changes the nomenclature (the various fins/tail cones have their own nomenclatures as well).

They’ve even been fitted with nose fuse extensions.

This video is about the history of the F-4 Phantom-2, but it has a couple of scenes from Vietnam in which F-4s off-load massive amounts of Mk82s:

Most ‘live’ Mk82s are painted olive drab with yellow markings and trim.  Some are light grey with yellow trim.  Yellow indicates it is a ‘live’ bomb.

“Bombs can be filled by conventional explosive or other explosive compositions (TNT, Tritonal, Comp B) with a wide range of fuzes (M904-M905, FMU-139, FMU-152, FBM 21, ID 260).”

USAF photo by Staff Sergeant Ryan Callaghan, 25JAN2017.

This live Mk82 has a nose mounted M904 fuse.

USAF photo by Master Sergeant Don Sutherland, 01FEB1981.

USAF photo by Senior Airman Zachary Heal, 05FEB2020.

Many bombs have varying shades of paint from one to the other, depending on how they were stored, exposure to sunlight, etc.

USAF photo by Senior Airman Zachary Heal, 05FEB2020.

This live Mk82 has a rear mounted M905 fuse.

USAF photo by Senior Airman Jacob M. Thompson, 27JAN2021.

Some tail cones have ‘pinwheels’ (ATU-35A/B tail mounted fuse drive assemblies) that have an arming wire connected to the bomb release mechanism.  The ATU-35 is for both the M904 nose fuse and the M905 rear mounted fuse.

Pinwheels on the tail cones of these practice bombs, denoted by the blue stripe around the nose. USAF photo by Master Sergeant Ken Hammond, 27JUN1987.

These Mk82s have the M904 nose fuse with the ATU-35 tail drive. USAF photo by Master Sergeant Ken Hammond, 27JUN1987.

U.S. Marine Corps photo by Lance Corporal Steven Walls, 28JAN2020.

The live Mk82s (BSU-33s?) on this AV-8B Harrier are grey with yellow trim.  Note the USMC fins are the similar to the USAF fins.

USMC photo by Lance Corporal James Marchetti, 14JAN2014.

Mark 82s onboard aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln (CVN-72). USN photo by Photographer’s Mate Second Class Tracy Lee Didas, 01OCT1989.

Same aircraft carrier, but in 1993. Mark 82s onboard aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln (CVN-72). USN photo by Photographer’s Mate Second Class Hayhurst, 01OCT1993.

For those model builders who are worried that they’ve hit their Mark 82s/BDUs with a paint bomb, most U.S. Navy/USMC bombs have a thick stucco looking coating of paint.

USN photo by Photographer’s Mate Second Class Tracy Lee Didas, 04NOV1987.

Mark 82s being transferred from ship-to-ship during Desert Storm. USN photo by Photographer’s Mate Second Class Charles W. Moore, 01FEB1991.

Video, 726th EABS Munitions Systems team shows you how to build a Mk82, November 2019, Djibouti:

An F-4E Phantom II off-loads a bunch of blue bombs onto the Bardenas Bombing Range in Spain. USAF photo by Staff Sergeant David Nolan, 25MAR1986.

Practice bombs are painted blue, or O-D with blue trim and fins.  Some are so old the blue paint is extremely faded.  Some practice bombs have spotting charges in the fin section to make it easier to spot where it impacts on the target field.

BDU-45 mounted on P3C Orion. USN photo by Mass Communication Specialist Second Class Harry J. Rucker the Third, 25OCT2009.

The U.S. Navy calls their practice Mk82 bomb the BDU-45.  Note there is a difference between USN fins and USAF fins.

BDU-45 mounted on P3C Orion. USN photo by Mass Communication Specialist Second Class Harry J. Rucker the Third, 25OCT2009.

USAF photo by Staff Sgt. Jim Araos, 02JUL2012.

Blue bombs.

Georgia Air National Guard F-105G gets bombed-up with a cement filled Blue Bomb. Photo by Airman First Class Sheryl D. Barnett, 10APR1981.

Video, Davis Monthan, Arizona, Operation SnowBird 2013, Idaho National Guard bombs-up their A-10s with Maverick missiles and Mk82s:

An Iranian F-14 tomcat bombed-up with Iranian made Mk82s on Iranian designed bomb rack.

A-10A on Sembach Air Base, Germany, being bombed-up with a Mk82 Snake Eye. USAF photo by Sutherland, 22APR1982.

The Mk82 can be fitted with low-drag fins or the infamous high-drag fins called Snake Eye.  The Snake Eye, or Mark 14 Tail Retarding Device, was developed because aircraft making low-level bombing runs would get hit by the shrapnel from the low-drag Mk82s.

A-7 Corsair II releasing Mark 82 hi-drag (Snake Eye) bombs on bombing range in Florida. USAF photo by Technical Sergeant Frank Garzelnick, 01MAY1980.

The Iranians love the Snake Eye, using it during low-level high-speed bombing runs against invading Iraqi forces in the 1980s and still using it today.

Iranian Thunderbolts (twin tailed F-5s) dropping snake eyes.

U.S. Navy A-6 Intruders dropping snake eyes.

Snake Eye outside the U.S. Air Force 88th Operations Support Squadron, Munitions Flight, at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio, 03MAR2021. USAF photo by Ty Greenlees.

USAF photo by Master Sergeant Dennis L. Carlson, 07DEC1978.

GBU-12 Paveway II is a ‘smart’ Mk82 with laser guidance system.

Canadian CF188 (F-18) being bombed-up with a Paveway in Kuwait, 13JAN2015.

This Mk82 is equipped with the Air Inflatable Retarder (AIR) tail.

FB-111A off-loads Mk82-AIR bombs, USAF photo by Master Sergeant Ken Hammond, 17NOV1990.

VEHICLE I-D: F-22 RAPTOR

International, U.S.

Return of the Cold War: Russia’s Putin says it must be so, in order to stop the insane paranoid United States!

“It seems that NATO members, especially the United States, have developed a peculiar interpretation of security that is different from ours. The Americans have become obsessed with the idea of becoming absolutely invulnerable…..absolute invulnerability for one country would in theory require absolute vulnerability for all others. This is something that cannot be accepted.”-Vladimir Putin

On February 27, 2012, Vladimir Putin published a 6,060 page statement.  In it he basically said that Russia will return to a Cold War with the United States!

Even analysts in Russia say Putin’s latest statement is worrying.  It has a lot of the usual anti-U.S. language, but it’s the first time Putin has actually indicated that a return to the Cold War is necessary.

“This is deeply concerning, since it creates the impression that chances for improvement in U.S.-Russian relations will diminish….in his view America is to blame for everything that’s going wrong in the world today, even terrorism, and Russia must prepare itself to act as a counterbalance to the U.S.”-Dmitry Suslov, Council on Foreign and Defense Policies

Putin does blame the U.S. for terrorism, even implies that the U.S. is terrorism: “Russia will always call things as it sees them…”

Putin says the difference between Russia and the U.S. is that Russia wants to be part of the New World Order, but the United States wants to control the New World Order!

He also warned of war with Iran: “…Russia is worried about the growing threat of a military strike against Iran. If this happens, the consequences will be disastrous. It is impossible to imagine the true scope of this turn of events.”

Putin’s 6,060 page statement was published in RIANovosti (in English), and on his website.

 

 

International, U.S.

Holy Back to the Future! Michele Bachmann says we’re still fighting the Soviet Union! Where have these female candidates been living, a Cold War bomb shelter?

“They see the rise of China, the rise of India, the rise of the Soviet Union and our loss militarily going forward.”-Michele Bachmann, presidential candidate

The rise of the Soviet Union!?!

In an interview by Christian radio host Jay Sekulow, Minnesota Representative Michele Bachmann said the greatest enemy of the United States is still…the Soviet Union!?!

Bachmann isn’t the first female presidential candidate to say so.  Back in 2010 failed former candidate Christine O’Donnell, told an interviewer that we were in Afghanistan to “finish the job” of fighting the Soviets.  I guess the official reason that we’re fighting to prevent another 9/11 didn’t register with her.

Hello people, the Soviet Union disintegrated 20 years ago!  Many of the former Soviet republics are now independent countries (mainly in Eastern Europe, some in Central Asia).  The only remnants that could be possibly associated with the Soviet Union is the CIS (Commonwealth of Independent States).

The CIS is made up of Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Russia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Ukraine and Uzbekistan.

Here’s the problem with presidential hopefuls not understanding world history.  The primary job of the President of the United States is Foreign Policy, not domestic policy (that’s the U.S. Congress).

Do you really want a President that has the mind set that we’re still living in the Cold War (1946 to 1991), with all that Mutually Assured nuclear Destruction (MAD), and people building fall out shelters, and U.S. presidents engaged in drug running to pay for covert wars in Afghanistan while declaring a War on Drugs within the U.S., and stuff like that?

I wonder how many of you know what I’m talking about?

 

 

 

 

International, U.S.

Russia says United States starting new Cold War

May 18, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, says the United States faces a new Cold War if it continues to push its “missile shield” across eastern Europe.

Medvedev says Russia will have no choice but to increase spending on its military, especially nuclear weapons: “We would then be talking about developing the offensive potential of our nuclear capabilities. This would be a very bad scenario.”

The U.S. has repeatedly said the missile shield system is aimed at Iran, but it’s very suspicious that most European countries that have agreed to host the U.S. system, are in eastern Europe facing Russia.

Business/Economics, International, Opinion, U.S.

Cold War between China & U.S. began 2005

“If the United States would not allow CNOOC to purchase Unocal, will not itself guarantee China a steady energy supply and opposes Chinese purchases of Iranian oil and gas, how can China survive?”-Zhang Guobao, former vice chairman National Development and Reform Commission

In 2005 China tried to buy California based Unocal.  The attempt was blocked by the U.S. government.

Before anybody in the U.S. says “good, we don’t want foreigners taking over our oil”, guess what?  Too late, ever hear of BP?  British Petroleum has been slowly taking over U.S. oil companies since 1998 (ever wondered what happened to AMOCO, or ARCO, or Castrol? They all owned by BP now).  At least the Chinese have a track record of spending money big time, for other projects, in the countries they move into, BP does not come close.

On top of that, China has been allowed to take over smaller U.S. companies, why not the oil companies?  Is it because BP can’t handle the competition?  Officially our government says it’s about National Security.  You mean letting a limey, red coat, mortal enemy of the founders of the United States, British company take over U.S. oil companies is not a National Security threat?

In 2007 Zhang Guobao issued a warning to the United States, saying the blocking of their purchase of Unocal “will have many after effects.” Can you say ‘get your game on!’  Remember China is our largest creditor, we owe them big time for financing our financially inept, elected officials deficit spending.

China has already retaliated by not allowing Coca-Cola to take over a Chinese beverage company in 2009.  Then again, Atlanta, Georgia based, Coca-Cola was so arrogant that they didn’t think it necessary to lobby Chinese politicians (something they do all the time here in the U.S.).

Several attempts by U.S. companies, to take over Chinese companies, have been squashed.  But remember when China tried to buy GM’s Hummer brand?  That fell through, because of the Chinese government.  It seems that the Chinese government has decided that not only are they going to block U.S. companies from moving into China, but they are going to block any Chinese company from investing in the U.S.  Sounds like an economic war. All they need to do now is start dumping U.S. bonds, and we’re toast.

Many U.S. media still claim that the United States is the biggest customer for China, wrong.  In the last decade, the Chinese have been moving their consumer market eggs into different baskets (wise move).  They’re invested big time in Latin America, blowing the United States away, another reason why Obama’s trip to Latin America was a total waste.  Australia has become such a big supplier of crops to China, that their economy is going gang busters as well.  In fact, when you look at most of the countries that are not being affected by the global recession, they all have one common factor; China is invested big time with their economies!

By the way, remember that big announcement Obama made when he went to China in 2009?  Even Chinese officials claimed it would end the U.S. recession.  What happened?

In January 2011, it was announced that the U.S. and China agreed to a $45 billion trade deal.  Obama lauded the deal saying it would support (not create) 235,000 jobs.  But there’s a catch.  Obama, and members of Congress said the deal was contingent upon China addressing certain ‘human rights’ issues.

“We also know this: history shows that societies are more harmonious, nations are more successful and the world is more just when the rights and responsibilities of all nations and all peoples are upheld — including the universal rights of every human being.”-President Barack Obama

“…raised our strong, ongoing concerns with reports of human rights violations in China, including the denial of religious freedom and the use of coercive abortion…”-House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio

“While we appreciate those words, the United States will watch the actions of the Chinese government to make sure that they meet the words that were spoken in the White House yesterday.”-Robert Gibbs, White House Spokesman

I believe the reason why the U.S. economy is still struggling is because the U.S. don’t wanna play with China anymore, and China don’t wanna play with the U.S., it’s all just Nuevo Cold War rhetoric now.