When I was an Air Force pilot in the 1980s, smart weapons were not a thing. I like to think that it took smart pilots to deliver dumb bombs effectively. The reality was that it took a lot of time on the bombing range to become and stay proficient with the weapons we would employ if we ever had to go to war.
In this post, I will describe and discuss the weapons I employed while flying the OV-10 and the F-16.
First up is the ubiquitous BDU-33 practice. The blue, 25-lb little bombs had an internal smoke charge. This little blue bomb was the practice weapon most often used. When I flew OV-10s in Korea, we dropped BDU-33s on the conventional range. With the F-16, we carried and dropped the little bombs for the majority of air-to-ground missions to both the conventional and tactical ranges.
In the OV-10, 2.75-inch rockets were our primary ordinance. Up to four of the seven-rocket launchers could be mounted on the racks under the sponsons. Rockets without warheads were used at the conventional range. For our FAC duties, we would carry “willy-pete” WP rockets with white phosphorus warheads. These rockets made a nice plume of white smoke, which we would use to help direct where the fighters we controlled should drop their bombs.
This picture shows a rocket launcher mounted to an OV-10 sponson. Above it, you see two of the four M-60 machine guns we carried (2 in each sponson). Each M-50 had up to 500 rounds of ammunition. This weapon is the same machine gun (minus a stock, with an electric firing mechanism) used for many years by U.S. ground troops. The guns fired 7.62 caliber ammo.
The M-60s had tracer rounds, and if you fired all four guns at once, often you would get four tracer streams going in four disparate directions. Usually, the two guns in a sponson would shoot close to the same direction. We strafed using one sponson of guns at a time.
When I flew the F-16, our primary ground attack weapon was the Mk-82 500-lb bomb. We would carry three on a triple ejection rack under each wing.
Another option would be a single 2000-lb Mk-84 under each wing for a total of two.
These were all dumb gravity bombs, so accurate bombing skills were a necessity.
Mk-82 and Mk-84s had spinner-type fuses that would spin up and arm a bomb after it was released. You can see the spinners in this picture. After takeoff, we would fly in close formation to check for spinners. You didn’t want to see a spinning fuse! Dropping life bombs happened once or twice a year.
There were also blue-painted, inert concrete duplicates of the Mk-82 and Mk-84. We dropped those regularly, especially during larger exercises.
I’ll finish this off with a story. When we dropped 500 or 2000 lb bombs, the releases would be separated by a fraction of a second, rippling off the bombs and spreading out the impact area.
With the 2000-pounders, the release would be a definite whump, whump, as the bombs released from the jet. For some reason, on one flight, I ended up single-ship carrying a pair of blue Mk-84s.
I needed to drop the bombs so I could return to base and land safely. I decided to see what would happen if I dropped the bombs one at a time. I selected a single bomb, rolled in on a target and pickled off a single 2000 lb. bomb. I got a big “Whoa!” as the jet rolled abruptly towards the side of the remaining bomb. The reaction was a more abrupt and violent surprise than I had expected. I knew what to expect when I dropped the second bomb, so I didn’t get the big surprise when the jet rolled hard away from the just-dropped bomb.
It was a lesson learned, and I was never tempted to repeat it.
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Did you ever meet General Turner, head of Homestead AFB? He was a one star at the time of hurricaine Andrew....It leveled Homestead AFB..A week before they flew all of the planes away from the hurricane...the few remaining were in the everglades after the storm....Turner said he loved flying F16s as much as he could...He tried for a second star...He wasnt awarded and ended up flying the 18 wheelers for fdx or ups to Europe....
Great story!