The operating principle of self-aiming combat elements in RBK-500 cluster bombs
In 1989, the Moscow association "Basalt" developed self-aiming combat elements (SPBE) for cluster bombs. Same year weapon was adopted by the USSR.
The new type of cluster munition was two-stage. The first stage is a conventional RBK-500 cluster bomb, which entered service in 1951.
Initially, it was filled with fragmentation aviation AO-1 bombs weighing 1 kg and 50 mm in diameter or 944 gram anti-tank aircraft bombs with a diameter of 42 mm PTAB. Since 1969, RBK-500 began to be filled with ball fragmentation bombs under the symbol SHOAB-0,5.
In 1989, the same 14 self-aiming elements developed by Basalt, consisting of two bodies attached to each other, began to be placed in the above-mentioned bomb.
One of them, having a cylindrical shape with a diameter of 186 mm and a height of 270 mm, contains a charge consisting of 40% TNT and 60% RDX.
The other housing, which has a parabolic shape, houses a device called the “target coordinator.” The latter is an optical-electronic device that detects radiation from operating equipment in the infrared range.
The operating principle of SPBE is as follows.
After the bomb is dropped from the carrier aircraft, after a set period of time the squib is triggered, which opens the bomb. Then 14 combat elements and 1 command element begin their descent using auxiliary parachutes.
At a distance of 170 meters from the earth’s surface, upon a signal from the command element, 14 combat parachutes shoot off the above-mentioned parachute and open three main ones, on which they slowly continue their descent, rotating thanks to two additional blades.
In flight, the self-aiming element scans and searches for a target, upon detection of which the fuse is triggered.
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