The U.S. Air Force has dropped a new penetrator bomb designed to cut through rock and concrete to destroy high-value targets such as bunkers or buried enemy locations. The bomb was dropped from an F-15 to assess release, targeting, flight path, and detonation capabilities. 

The weapon, called the GBU-72 Advanced 5K Penetrator bomb, was tested at Eglin Air Force Base, Fla. The bomb, which weighs five thousand pounds, is configured to drop from both fighter jets as well as bombers to hit otherwise unreachable targets at risk from the air. According to an Air Force press release, the GBU-72 is expected to be more lethal than the GBU-28.

Additional testing is planned for next year in preparation for operational status. Bunker buster bombs, as they are called, are often designed with a programmable delayed fuse so that they can penetrate rock and concrete to certain depths before detonating. Similar weapons were used against terrorists buried in caves in Afghanistan and are built to cut through otherwise impenetrable fortifications. 

The GBU-72 was fast-tracked using computer modeling and simulation techniques to assess key performance parameters before constructing a test weapon. The test drop was intended to assess the bomb release, guidance, flight controls, and explosive characteristics.

Little information is available on the bomb’s explosives. However, the Air Force has been developing munitions designed to maximize penetration and lethality in similar weapons for years. The fragmentation and explosive characteristics, the Air Force press statement said, were assessed through what is called an “arena test.” The arena test is an “open-air test where the warhead detonates surrounded by blast pressure sensors and fragment counting equipment to determine the weapon’s lethality.” This was Eglin’s largest arena test in its history.

Bunker buster weapons certainly have a clear tactical application against terrorists, insurgents, or other asymmetrical kinds of engagements where enemies are deliberately blending into civilian areas or hiding beneath fortifications. These kinds of targeting scenarios can require great precision and were approached often during the war in Afghanistan.

However, bunker-buster bombs would also be valuable against a peer opponent’s command and control assets, ammunition storage, or other kinds of high-value targets might often be buried beneath rock and concrete for additional protection. Overhead targeting and surveillance could be difficult in this kind of scenario as targets might be difficult to find with aerial sensors such as cameras or radar. But if intelligence can locate the existence of a buried target, a weapon with advanced penetrating and explosive power might be used to reach and destroy otherwise inaccessible targets. 

Kris Osborn is the defense editor for the National Interest. Osborn previously served at the Pentagon as a Highly Qualified Expert with the Office of the Assistant Secretary of the Army—Acquisition, Logistics & Technology. Osborn has also worked as an anchor and on-air military specialist at national TV networks. He has appeared as a guest military expert on Fox News, MSNBC, The Military Channel, and The History Channel. He also has a Master’s Degree in Comparative Literature from Columbia University. 

Image: Reuters.