Named for a mythical medieval French sword, the Durandal is a bomb developed by the French company Matra (now MBDA France, a branch of EADS), designed to destroy airport and airfield runways.
Designed to be dropped from low altitudes, the bomb's fall is slowed by a parachute. When the bomb is vertical due to the parachute's drag, it fires a rocket booster that accelerates it into the runway surface. The bomb explodes after it has penetrated the surface. This results in a crater that is large and difficult to repair, worse than a conventional bomb of comparable warhead size. The rocket can penetrate up to 40 centimeters of concrete, and creates a crater 5 meters deep and approximately 16 meters in diameter.
Durandals weigh 204 kg (450 lb) and are 2.5 m (8 ft 2 in) long. The warhead is made of 150 kg (330 lb) of high explosives.
History edit
A predecessor to Durandal was developed jointly by France and Israel during the 1960s to destroy air base runways. The weapon was used to devastating effect by the Israelis during the Six Day War.
The bomb was designed to be deployed from the French fighter-bombers which formed the central core of the Israeli Air Force's order of battle during the 1950s and 1960s. When dropped over a runway, the bomb was designed to fall to a certain altitude before a parachute deployed to slow its fall. A retro-rocket then fired, to stabilize the bomb at an attitude of sixty degrees from the perpendicular. Once the bomb reached a set altitude, a booster rocket would fire, causing the bomb to penetrate through runway concrete deep into the ground. Finally, the embedded bomb would explode, leaving a 5 meter deep crater in the runway, taxiway, or airport ramp area that was impassable to enemy jet aircraft.
The development of these bombs was ordered long before the Six Day War was anticipated. Israeli military planners knew that mastery of the Middle East's skies was the key to Israeli survival in any war. Many of the Egyptian air bases, particularly the forward bases in the Sinai, lacked multiple runways. Thus, their entire complement of aircraft could be neutralized by a single well-placed strike. The IAF's commander, Mordechai Hod, noted in reflection that "a jet aircraft is the deadliest weapon in existence -- in the sky. But on the ground, it is useless."
Several hundred Durandal bombs were employed in the first waves of the Israeli attack against the Egyptian Air Force, effectively immobilizing the bulk of Egypt's planes, which were then demolished by strafing and rocket fire from subsequent attack waves. The tactic was successful beyond the wildest dreams of IAF planners; within the first hour of the war, the Egyptian air force was battered to the point of tactical impotence by the loss of hundreds of planes. "A stone -- just one, but one of agonizing weight -- rolled off my heart," said Hod later regarding the success of the attack.
Durandal bombs were also used in Iraq by the USAF, delivered by F-111E of the 20th Fighter Wing during low altitude bomb runs. 20th Wing flight commander Captain George Kelman said "there is nothing better at destroying a runway than a Durandal."
The French Air Force started using Durandal in 1977. It was adopted by the US as the BLU-107 in the 1980s, and carried by F-111 and F-16 fighters. The Durandal was used by the USAF in Desert Storm [1]
Durandal was designed with a shelf life of eleven years. If a round was carried on three sorties and not expended, it was marked for disposal. As a consequence, although the U.S. bought thousands of them before the Gulf War, there are currently no more Durandals in the U.S. Air Force inventory.
See also edit
- JP233 - A British anti-runway weapon
- BAP 100 - A smaller French anti-runway weapon adopted by the French Air Force