Aerospace Bomb
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Basic Information

The aerospace bomb is a weapon - usually an explosive or an incendiary device delivered to target by an aircraft. The bomb may be "smart" (guided) or "dumb" (unguided) but should not include any kind of propulsion system - this would re-classify it as either a rocket or a missile, depending on whether it was guided or not.

Some of the earliest bombs were actually kinetic-kill weapons - essentially metal darts dropped from primitive aircraft into the trenches of WW1, often as a private venture of the attacking pilot. Soon after, explosive free-fall bombs were developed and early incendiaries followed on from these. By the end of the war, chemical weapons were also deployable from aircraft.

WW2 saw further advances in the state of aerospace bombs - from huge, deep penetrating bunker busters (such as the Grand Slam) to guided anti-shipping glide bombs, parachute retarded devices for low level bombing and early napalm based incendaries.

Subsequent developments include smart bombs guided to target by lasers, live television signals and GPS locators, the cluster bomb in its many forms and thermobaric munitions.

Other aircraft deployed warloads include naval mines, torpedos, propaganda materials and biological weapons and nuclear weapons - not to mention the rockets and missiles noted above.

Sources

Bibliography
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