“Bunker buster” bombs penetrate fortified structures or underground facilities before detonating. These weapons combine massive kinetic energy with delayed fusing mechanisms to maximize destruction of hardened targets.
## How Bunker Busters Work
The bomb uses a heavy, hardened steel casing—often made from artillery barrels—to pierce concrete or earth. Dropped from high altitude, it gains tremendous speed, building kinetic energy that drives it deep underground or through reinforced bunkers. Upon impact, the nose acts like a spear, allowing penetration of up to 100 feet of earth or 20 feet of solid concrete.
Laser-guidance assemblies or GPS navigation enable precision targeting. Adjustable fins steer the bomb mid-flight, requiring high-altitude deployment to allow sufficient trajectory-correction time.
A dual-fuse system prevents premature explosion:
– detect penetration completion
– trigger after reaching target depth
This delay allows the bomb to reach buried facilities before detonating its payload—typically 650+ pounds of explosives like tritonal (TNT/aluminum mix) for enhanced blast power.
Weighing up to 30,000 pounds, modern bunker busters like the GBU-57 Massive Ordnance Penetrator create catastrophic explosions inside fortified targets. Their design prioritizes maximum structural collapse by exploding within confined spaces.
