Fighting Smarter: Burning Bouncy Ball Bunker Busters

Written by Dabney B. on Wednesday, September 26th, 2012

If you go to any modern grocery store you’ll probably find toy dispensers that hand out quirky little gizmos and thingamabobs to any kid willing to dish out 25 cents. Some of the most common toys are bouncy balls. They offer a cheap thrill for kids, but believe it or not those bouncy balls might be the inspiration for the military’s next great weapon.

Basically, imagine a bomb that’s loaded up with hundreds of flaming bouncy balls. Once it goes off, the balls will ricochet of walls and melt just about everything they touch.

That’s the DoD’s idea for its newest bunker buster. Taking out underground bunkers can be a real problem for the military. First off, they’re hard to penetrate. Even if you’re able to get an explosive device inside of an underground facility, the corners and multiple levels could disrupt the blast and protect some of the intended targets. And if that weren’t bad enough, the main reason why you would want to blow up a bunker is to take out a weapons facility, and blowing bomb labs to smithereens could send clouds of hazardous materials up to the surface.

 

 

The best way to take out bunkers is with fire. Heat will safely and quickly destroy weapons and computer systems, but in the past buy valium with no rx we’ve needed to use explosives as a way to spread out the flames.

The new bouncy ball weapon, technically referred to as “kinetic fireball incendiaries,” will get around all of these problems. These balls will be partly hollow and their insides will be filled with combustible materials. There’s also a small hole in the spheres, so that any exposure to flame will ignite the balls and send them rocketing through the air, kind of like letting go of a balloon. The difference here is that these balls will leave 1,000 °F air in their wakes as they ricochet around corners and punch through doors.

 

 

These fireball weapons are still under development and are therefore confidential. The Pentagon’s Defense Threat Reduction Agency hasn’t been willing to share many details about the device, but we do know that kinetic fireball weapons have been tested in at least one underground bunker.

It’s a clever solution to a difficult problem, isn’t it? That just goes to show you that the best way to handle a combat problem is to fight smarter, not harder. A single great idea, like the kind that you’d get from Strike Fighter Consulting Inc., can provide a fresh perspective and allow you to tackle a problem from an entirely new angle.

If you want advice about the world of military aviation, there’s no better people to turn to than men and women who have sat in the cockpit and flown some of the world’s most advanced aircraft. With over 50 current and ex-warfighters on call, Strike Fighter Consulting Inc. can give you access to up-to-date, first-hand technical and tactical expertise.