JP233
The JP233 was an area weapon with cluster munitions for use against airfields. It was used exclusively on tornadoes of the air forces in Great Britain and Saudi Arabia .
history
At the end of the 1970s, the JP233 was initially a British-American joint project ( J oint P roject ). Under the program name Low Altitude Airfield Attack System (LAAAS), a weapon was to be procured which, in the event of a war with the Warsaw Pact , could fight its airfields with the least possible amount of force. Adaptation should primarily be made to the F-111 and the tornado. After the USA withdrew in 1981, the weapon was further developed nationally by Great Britain and manufactured by Hunting Engineering (today: INSYS Ltd.).
Over 100 of these weapons were used in the war against Iraq (1991).
Since the British government saw the use and storage of the mine submunition of the JP233 as a violation of the Anti-Personnel Mine Agreement of Ottawa , all British JP233s were decommissioned and destroyed from 1997 to October 19, 1999. Since technical support for the weapon systems of the Saudi air force was also ruled out, the JP233 there was returned in exchange for 100 Paveway III precision bombs .
description
The JP233 consisted of a submunition container that was factory- loaded with runway bombs and mines . When flying over the target in deep flight , the submunition was fired pyrotechnically downwards from the ejection tubes. She was braked and straightened by small self-deploying parachutes . The bombs created craters in the surface of flight operations areas such as runways or taxiways . The additional mines brought out were supposed to make the repair of the destroyed areas more difficult. After the submunition was ejected, the containers were dropped.
Submunition dispenser
The approximately 6.5 m long discharge container with a weight of 2,335 kg consisted of a rounded front and rear part. The attachment took place under the aircraft fuselage of the tornado on the two outer load carriers . Only the British Royal Air Force and Saudi Air Force tornadoes were able to carry and deploy two JP233 containers each.
Submunition
The submunition consisted of per container
- 30 runway bombs of the type SG-357 (approx. 26 kg each) with a shaped charge to penetrate the surface (penetrator) and an explosive charge to create the crater
- 215 self-righting fragmentation mines of the type HB-876 (approx. 2.4 kg each). If it was not activated, self-destruction occurred after 24 hours at the latest.
No other types of submunition were available.
See also
- Multipurpose weapon 1 : comparable submunition container for the tornado
- BLU-107 Durandal : special bomb to break through runway surfaces, creating a crater that is difficult to repair.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Official report of the British Parliament of March 8, 1982 at hansard.millbanksystems.com, accessed on November 23, 2008
- ↑ Official report of the British Parliament of June 23, 1980 at hansard.millbanksystems.com, accessed on November 23, 2008
- ↑ Official report of the British Parliament of October 25, 1999 at publications.parliament.uk, accessed on November 23, 2008
- ^ Report on the homepage of the FOIA (Freedom Of Information Act) Center, accessed on November 23, 2008
- ↑ Official report of the British Parliament of February 26, 1986 at hansard.millbanksystems.com, accessed on November 23, 2008
- ^ Report in FLIGHT International of October 3, 1981 (PDF, 1.5 MB)