Banned Weapons Of War – Cluster Bomb Test: CBU-105 Sensor Fuzed Weapon

USAF tests its CBU-105 Sensor Fuzed Weapon (SFW) cluster bombs on a training range.

The United States is currently the largest manufacturer and user of cluster bombs.

AiirSource Military covers events and missions from the United States Armed Forces: Army, Navy, Marine Corps, Air Force, and Coast Guard.

Visit our channel for more military videos:

Subscribe and turn on the notification bell to stay updated:

Credits: DoD | Megan Quall | AiirSource Military

[AiirSource]

Help us translate this video's title & description into more languages:

[SteelbeastsCavalry]

Clusterbombs are only "banned" (I think the maker means "against the geneva convention") when dropped over civilian populated areas. CBU-87s, 97s, and 105s are key conventional weapons of war. None of these are "banned."

[ObiCH]

The CBU-97/105 family is designed for neutralization not destruction. The "skeets" that get propelled into the air have a IR and laser sensor. They scan the ground for height differences and heat from engines. If they find any, they destroy the motorblock of said vehicle with a dart-projectile. Although there are some confirmed tankkills in terms of "blowing them up", keep in mind that this is most likely test-munition with a reduced charge so that the kinetic effects can be observed more closely.

[astafzciba]

No tanks were harmed in the making of this video

[deficator]

props to the camera guy for standing his ground

[esven]

Very few people commenting seem to understand how this weapon works. Each of the smaller munitions launches a central large explosively formed penetrator at the target while several surrounding smaller penetrators spread out in a cone. These penetrators are small but have far more energy than a conventional projectile. The penetrators are traveling at at least 2km/s and could be moving as fast as 10km/s while a standard round, like a 50 caliber bullet, will struggle to make it to 1 km/s and these perpetrators carry more mass than any round would. The shape of the charge face as well as a cavity within the explosive itself is designed to form the copper into an aerodynamically stable shape and so the result we'd expect then from a successful test is a small hole into the tank, likely damaging quite a few of the internals and usually focused on the engine block, and an elliptical spray of smaller penetrators around the tank. Tanks deal well with even fairly substantial explosive charges. They do not deal well with small holes getting punched in them.


This test was with a dummy load to gauge the performance characteristics of this weapon in some respect. There are very few single weapons you could drop to disable that many armored vehicles at once. In that way I think the role of something like this is obvious.

[Lukyan]

0:35 Direct hit on the far right tank's engine block. Hit on the same tank again at 0:39. Middle tank behind the stripped tank hull gets hit at 0:47. Those are some effective munitions.

[thegreatemu]

The munition did hit their target look up at 2:44, just because you dont see huge explosion or seeing the tank being teared ripped doesnt mean that it missed. Additionally, this weapon was used to kill the pierce and kill the inside of the tank while limiting collateral damage

[makismakiavelis]

It seems anti-climactic; no big explosions, no fireballs like in TV or movies until you realize that each of those parachutes carries 4 robots that scan for targets on the ground and shoot molten copper that can penetrate steel and kill everyone inside a tank...

[onlypinkforgives]

To anyone saying this is not impressive... Imagine each one of those rounds thats going off is explosive, thats how powerful this weapon is.

[Limescale]

this is one of those highly technical weapons that most people look at and think, "what am I looking at? doesn't look like much." but really it's deceivingly effective.


"WHAT, NO BIG EXPLOSIONS AND FIRE?! THESE THINGS SUCK! AND BY EXTENSION, SO DOES THE ENTIRE COUNTRY OF THE UNITED STATES!"

[olliephelan]

Im a bit confused before 2:26 .
Have any of those detonations from 1:32 harmed the tank ?

Id have no doubt that theres holes in the tank after that, but it would have been nice to see them .

[adamrasmussen]

K people...imagine if these damn things were really going off and exploding...those tanks would have to be replaced everytime those CBU's were deployed...105's and 97's are insanely destructive and awesome to watch

[burperfire]

Very interesting how the sensors direct the canisters to different directions to have numerous angles of fire on a single target. Super cool. Also for all the people complaining about the weapons ethics, I did a university paper on ethics in warfare. There are much more worse things for example, think of this cluster munition with smaller fragments meant for Anti-personal but the fragments are undetectable within the human body via x-rays by design, much worse (Banned by Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons, protocol I).

Another thing, there are about a dozen or so countries that haven't Ratified Protocol II of the Geneva convention, purposefully not saying signed, because the US HAS signed all 3 protocols but has only ratified Protocol III, meaning we only officially enforce Protocol III. Just check out a book, there were tons at my library. Below is a link to a map you can just wiki on who has signed what, check to see if they have also ratified it.

TLDR: Super cool weapon, quit crying about laws and bans, there are much worse things out there that you have absolutely no idea about just thank god they are not used against you due to our military might and ability to protect ourselves and retaliate.

[Whatever_man]

This is actually a terrifying weapon. It looks quite festive, like fireworks. It doesn't look like it does any real damage. However, then you start to realize that each of those things (Skeets) hanging on the parachutes have a scanner that looks for armoured targets. If it acquires them, it aims (calculates) and then shoots molten copper into the vehicles. And armour really doesn't like molten copper shooting in it at incredible speed. It will mess up electrics and occupants badly, disabling them both. Each of those Skeets also fires a ring of shrapnel around the target, so there will be even more free body holes for anyone standing around it. At the same time, it's almost invisible. It's like it has the intimidation factor of a mouse but the strength of an elephant. Underestimate it and you will lose both your vehicle and your life.

[AlexSDU]

Would be nice if they show the aftermath and the damages those tanks received.
Also, I was expecting something more destructive like area saturation like how the old cluster bombs does.

[christophermiller]

Russia sure didn't banned Cluster Bombs.

[lancecombes]

Good job protecting those tanks from that evil sand!
That sand can't hurt anyone again! 😂

[dkoz]

cluster munitions are not banned. Just restricted in their use in dense civilian occupied areas.

[WorkerBee]

B52 full of these and that russian convoy leading to kyiv is bye-bye