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Soviet Gravity Bombs

The first aerial bombs were used by the Italians in the Italo-Turkish War of 1911-12. In Russia, the first aerial bombs were developed in 1909-14. Aircraft designer bombs of the system of V.Oranovskii consisted of 4 fission bombs weighing from 8 to 80 and 8 kg of explosive bombs weighing from 4 to 640 kg. In 1916, the system was supplemented incendiary bomb designs of Colonel Yakovlev. By the early 1930 the Soviet Union had all existing types of bombs of the main and auxiliary facilities (AB Nadashkevich designers, VI Sassaparel, NL Solovyov Turahin AF et al.).

By 1931 the Air Force of the RKKA received the first bombs FAB-100, FAB-250, FAB-500 and FAB-1000. A year later their production was established, and the release of AF-82 ceased. Four-engine TB-3 already had the opportunity to carry all this range. The biggest bomb, FAB-1000 (it's the AF-1000), was suspended from the outside under the fuselage. In the polygonal tests near Balaklava, such a bomb was dropped on a concrete casemate with a ceiling thickness of more than one and a half meters. The explosion simply moved the entire upper part of the structure. FAB-1000 gave a funnel diameter of 17 m and a depth of 4 m. But the main weapon for TB-3 was considered "hundred", two dozen of which he carried on the cassette holders in the fuselage.

The main types of domestic high-explosive aerial bombs were developed at NIO-67 in the early 1930s. In the years 1931-1932. High-explosive aerial bombs of caliber 50, 100, 250, 500 and 1000 kg were designed. In 1934, the Air Force FAB-2000 high-explosive aerial bomb developed in NIO-67 was put into service. The high-explosive aerial bombs FAB-50 and FAB-70 were 152-mm and 203-mm high-explosive shells from obsolete guns with welded-on stabilizers.

Before the war, in order to save the scarce metal at the suggestion of Professor N.I. Tests of these products successfully ended in June 1941. Even before the war, high-explosive aerial bombs in reinforced concrete hulls were adopted by the Air Force. In the early years of the war, reinforced concrete hulls were also manufactured at Pavshinsky plant near Moscow.

During the war, mass production of high explosive bombs of simplified design, created in 1942-1943, was launched. in GSKB-47. The basis of new designs was based on the casting of steel cast iron hulls. The machines were threaded only under the fuse, and the rest of the threaded connections used Edisson's thread, obtained in the process of casting casings. Stabilizers do detachable.

At the same time, in order to reduce machining volumes, the drawings of welded versions of high-explosive aerial bombs were also revised. High-explosive aerial bombs simplified design and manufacturing technology assigned the index M-43. During the year, 9 new designs were created: FAB-50 M43, FAB-100 M-43, FAB-250 M43, FAB-500 M-43, FAB-2000 M-43, FAB-50sch (gray iron), FAB- YuOsch, FAB-250sch and FAB-YuOOsl (steel casting). By the end of the war, the OFAB-100 powerful high-explosive fragmentation bombs were put into service. This bomb was equipped with 26 kg of Ammatol 50/50 and a TNT plug weighing 4.7 kg.

When bombing from a height of 2000 m and the explosion of the OFAB-100 bomb, a crater with a diameter of 4.8 m, a depth of 1.7 m, and a volume of 10 m ^ was formed in ordinary soil. Fragments at rupture of OFAB-100 ensured a continuous defeat of open manpower within a radius of 50 m, pierced armor 40 mm thick at a distance of 3 m, 30 mm at a distance of 10 m and 15 mm at 15 m from the explosion site.

During the war years, high-explosive bombs were filled by pouring one of the following explosives into the body: pure TNT, French mixture (80% picric acid + 20% dinitronaphthalene), Ammatol 50/50, TSA alloy (50% TNT + 38% ammonium nitrate + 10 % aluminum powder) and alloy TGA-12 (50% TNT + 40% RDX + 10% aluminum powder). A large number of high-explosive aerial bombs were equipped with Ammatol 80/20 by means of augers on horizontal augers.

In 1941, a high-explosive aerial bomb FAB-100 KD, developed by S.G. Dobrish (NII-6), was adopted (for wartime) by the Air Force. This bomb was filled with a liquid explosive mixture of CD, consisting of nitric acid, dichloroethane and oleum (ratio 60: 40: 30). According to explosive characteristics, this mixture is equivalent to TNT. The high-explosive effect of FAB-100 KD was the same as that of FAB-100 equipped with TNT. Technology equipment FAB-100 KD was extremely simple (alternate pouring components into the body of the bombs), therefore, for the organization of production required no more than one or two months.

From the beginning of 1942, the Air Force began to use the FAB-100 KD. At that time it was very important, as the outfitting factories were evacuated, and there was not enough trotyl and other explosives to equip the bombs. Production of FAB-100 KD was discontinued in 1944 due to the fact that the mobilization supply of one-piece forged corps was completely consumed. Attempts to apply welded shells were unsuccessful: filled with a mixture of KD, they flowed through the welds.

At the beginning of the war, when German troops approached Moscow, attempts were made to use oxilicot bombs developed at NII-6 on the Western Front. For this purpose, reinforced concrete hulls FAB-100 NG and FAB-250 NG were used. They were stuffed with a mixture of moss (sphagnum) and charcoal, characterized by high absorption capacity. Liquid oxygen delivered from Moscow was poured into bombs on the front-line airfields. Thus equipped bombs retained explosive properties at the level of bombs equipped with TNT and Ammatol 50/50 for 3-4 hours for FAB-100 and FAB-250.

About 500 oxilicotite air bombs, mainly 100 kg in size, were loaded and dropped on airfields, tank columns, bridges and other enemy objects. Work on their use was discontinued when the German troops were driven away from the capital and the delivery of liquid oxygen to front-line airfields became impossible.

The total share of high-explosive aerial bombs FAB-500, FAB-100 and FAB-250 during the war years ranged from 97 to 99.6%. The nomenclature of high-explosive aerial bombs changed in the direction of the predominance of larger calibers. The proportion of FAB-250 increased every year; by the end of the war, their share increased six times as compared with 1941 and reached 17.2%. The share of FAB-500 significantly decreased, and the production of FAB-100 all the years of the war was kept at 50-70% of the total number of high-explosive aerial bombs.

During the Great Patriotic War there were created a few samples of the new bombs (anti-tank, high-explosive) and modernized pre-war. After the war, it was decided to adopt several types of high-explosive bombs of caliber 100, 250, 500, 1500, 3000, 5000 and 9000 kg. explosive bombs of large caliber, taken into service in the late 1940s and the beginning of the 1950s were mainly intended for operation against large marine ships. Only the FAB-1500 was considered eligible for attacks on industrial facilities, dams and underground structures.