Russian vacuum bomb obliterates Ukrainian installation
Up to 40 troops and five vehicles have been destroyed in the strike, the Russian military has claimed
The Russian Defense Ministry on Tuesday released video footage of what it claims is an airstrike with an ODAB-1500 bomb on a Ukrainian temporary deployment point near the town of Kupyansk in Kharkov Region.
The thermobaric munition, colloquially known as the ‘vacuum bomb,’ apparently scored a direct hit on a building that houses Ukrainian forces, surveillance drone footage released by the military shows. The building, apparently located at a secluded agricultural site, was completely destroyed in the massive blast.
Up to 40 “Ukrainian militants” and five military vehicles were destroyed in the strike, according to Russian Defense Ministry estimated.
The aerial munition was apparently fitted with a Universal Correction and Guidance Module (UMPK). Over the course of the conflict, Russia has increasingly used the winged upgrade kits for older free-fall bombs, which turn such munitions into high-precision weaponry.
The UMPKs were initially used with smaller high-explosive bombs such as FAB-250 or FAB-500, and the upgrade kits have ultimately made them into specialized munitions, including thermobaric ODAB-1500 and cluster RBK-500 bombs. This year, the kits were adapted to larger munitions, with the repeated use of massive, three-ton, high-explosive FAB-3000 bombs fitted with UMPKs observed from mid-June.
Me: Good idea for old American Munitions?
The thermobaric munition hits its target, opening the container and dispersing the fuel mixture as a cloud. The typical blast wave lasts significantly longer than that of a conventional explosive. In contrast to an explosive that uses oxidation in a confined region to produce a blast front emanating from a single source, a thermobaric flame front accelerates to a large volume, which produces pressure fronts within the mixture of fuel and oxidant and then also in the surrounding air...The blast kill mechanism against living targets is unique—and unpleasant. ... What kills is the pressure wave, and more importantly, the subsequent rarefaction [vacuum], which ruptures the lungs. ... If the fuel deflagrates but does not detonate, victims will be severely burned and will also inhale the burning fuel. Since the most common FAE fuels, ethylene oxide and propylene oxide, are highly toxic, undetonated FAE should prove as lethal to personnel caught within the cloud as with most chemical agents.. A particularly horrible way to die for personnel caught away from the epicentre of the explosion/implosion