On Fri, Jun 11, 2021 at 7:00 AM The New York Times <[email protected]> wrote:
> The term “Mark 80” may sound familiar to a lot of you. > [image: At War] > <https://nl.nytimes.com/f/a/U0GxBUiF6b1zWJAswBnkgw~~/AAAAAQA~/RgRipcdoP0S4aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cubnl0aW1lcy5jb20vc3BvdGxpZ2h0L2F0d2FyP2NhbXBhaWduX2lkPTg4JmVtYz1lZGl0X3dhcl8yMDIxMDYxMSZpbnN0YW5jZV9pZD0zMjczMSZubD1hdC13YXImcmVnaV9pZD03MjgyNzE2MiZzZWdtZW50X2lkPTYwNDE4JnRlPTEmdXNlcl9pZD1mMWZiMjg1ZDI5MmUxNGM0NDZlODU2OGU3NjA5YzBkNlcDbnl0QgpgwmhCw2A0JrKCUhVkbW96YXJ0MTc1NkBnbWFpbC5jb21YBAAAAAA~> > > June 11, 2021 > The American Bomb Behind Many of the Israeli Airstrikes in Gaza > > Dear reader, > > During Israel’s recent bombing campaign in Gaza, the IDF posted photos and > videos of American-made munitions being loaded on American-made warplanes > and dropped on Hamas targets. Some of those weapons hit enemy fighters, > others hit civilians. > > They were olive green with gray tails. Some were so large that they needed > gray steel braces called strakes around their midsection, and they all have > nearly become household names in the two decades since the Sept. 11 > attacks: JDAMs. Short for Joint Direct Attack Munition, it describes a kit > attachment that turns a far older weapon — the Mark 80-series bomb — into a > guided weapon that follows GPS signals from satellites to its target. > An Israeli Mk-84 air-dropped 2,000-pound bomb, which did not explode, on > May 17 in the center of Gaza City.Samar Abu Elouf for The New York Times > > The term “Mark 80” may sound familiar to a lot of you. It’s the family of > general-purpose bombs that has been America’s mainstay for airstrikes since > the early 1960s. > > As the Navy began fielding supersonic warplanes shortly after World War > II, officials quickly realized that the bombs they had been using before > created too much drag and limited the speeds their new rocket-powered > planes and jets could achieve. They needed a completely new bomb design > that could be carried externally across the speed of sound. > Continue reading the main story <#m_4568342648294664102_a11y-skip-0> > > > In June 1947, the Navy authorized a bomb release system designed by > Douglas Aircraft in El Segundo, Calif., built for high-speed flight. Two > months later, wind tunnel tests began in Pasadena, Calif., and Navy > officials found their design had six times less drag than those used in > World War II and Korea. By August 1955, the Douglas-designed Mark 80 series > of 250-, 500-, 1,000- and 2,000-pound bombs had gone into production and > appeared in classified ordnance manuals under the same names used today. > > These bombs have survived because they were designed from the beginning to > be modular and updated as better inventions came along. So for nearly 70 > years, the Pentagon has developed new and better fuzes for the Mark 80 > family as well as different fins. This later took the form of an entire kit > that could be fixed to the bomb’s nose and tail, turning it into a guided > weapon. (Another update turned the Mark 80 into a mine that could function > on land or underwater.) > > Parts and pieces of those bombs, such as their base plates, suspension > lugs and fins can often be found after an airstrike, and they offer clues > to the careful observer of what kind of weapon was used. > > The original rigid tail fins for unguided Mark 80s, made of relatively > thin sheet metal, are typically obliterated when those bombs explode. Not > so for the movable thick steel fins found on laser-guided kits like > Paveway, that debuted in the Vietnam War > <https://nl.nytimes.com/f/a/Aim1f-yRNldwUa4c4ZvmrQ~~/AAAAAQA~/RgRipcdoP4QAAWh0dHBzOi8vd3d3Lm55dGltZXMuY29tLzE5NzIvMDcvMDgvYXJjaGl2ZXMvYm9tYmluZy1pcy10ZXJtZWQtbW9yZS1lZmZlY3RpdmUtbm93LXBpbG90cy1jYWxsLW5vcnRoLXZpZXRuYW0uaHRtbD9jYW1wYWlnbl9pZD04OCZlbWM9ZWRpdF93YXJfMjAyMTA2MTEmaW5zdGFuY2VfaWQ9MzI3MzEmbmw9YXQtd2FyJnJlZ2lfaWQ9NzI4MjcxNjImc2VnbWVudF9pZD02MDQxOCZ0ZT0xJnVzZXJfaWQ9ZjFmYjI4NWQyOTJlMTRjNDQ2ZTg1NjhlNzYwOWMwZDZXA255dEIKYMJoQsNgNCayglIVZG1vemFydDE3NTZAZ21haWwuY29tWAQAAAAA>, > or the GPS-guided JDAM, that first saw combat in the late 1990s > <https://nl.nytimes.com/f/a/aGQDR9nhlFRNxmV_iDaLIA~~/AAAAAQA~/RgRipcdoP4QJAWh0dHBzOi8vd3d3Lm55dGltZXMuY29tLzE5OTkvMDQvMzAvd29ybGQvY3Jpc2lzLWluLXRoZS1iYWxrYW5zLXBlbnRhZ29uLWItNTItcy10by1jYXJyeS1sZXNzLWFjY3VyYXRlLWdyYXZpdHktYm9tYnMuaHRtbD9jYW1wYWlnbl9pZD04OCZlbWM9ZWRpdF93YXJfMjAyMTA2MTEmaW5zdGFuY2VfaWQ9MzI3MzEmbmw9YXQtd2FyJnJlZ2lfaWQ9NzI4MjcxNjImc2VnbWVudF9pZD02MDQxOCZ0ZT0xJnVzZXJfaWQ9ZjFmYjI4NWQyOTJlMTRjNDQ2ZTg1NjhlNzYwOWMwZDZXA255dEIKYMJoQsNgNCayglIVZG1vemFydDE3NTZAZ21haWwuY29tWAQAAAAA> > in the former Yugoslavia. > Continue reading the main story <#m_4568342648294664102_a11y-skip-1> > > > JDAM was born of frustrations that U.S. Air Force leaders had in the wake > of the 1991 Persian Gulf war, once it became clear that some of their > laser-guided Paveway bombs missed their targets because of interference > from clouds, smoke and sandstorms that blocked the bomb’s ability to follow > laser beams shined from the warplanes that dropped them. > > Three years ago, I interviewed the person who claims responsibility for > the JDAM’s creation: a retired Air Force general named Merrill A. McPeak > <https://nl.nytimes.com/f/a/hKnN0_x2J9xJ6nwTkcbNuA~~/AAAAAQA~/RgRipcdoP0TpaHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuYWYubWlsL0Fib3V0LVVzL0Jpb2dyYXBoaWVzL0Rpc3BsYXkvQXJ0aWNsZS8xMDYxMzcvZ2VuZXJhbC1tZXJyaWxsLWEtbWNwZWFrLz9jYW1wYWlnbl9pZD04OCZlbWM9ZWRpdF93YXJfMjAyMTA2MTEmaW5zdGFuY2VfaWQ9MzI3MzEmbmw9YXQtd2FyJnJlZ2lfaWQ9NzI4MjcxNjImc2VnbWVudF9pZD02MDQxOCZ0ZT0xJnVzZXJfaWQ9ZjFmYjI4NWQyOTJlMTRjNDQ2ZTg1NjhlNzYwOWMwZDZXA255dEIKYMJoQsNgNCayglIVZG1vemFydDE3NTZAZ21haWwuY29tWAQAAAAA>, > who was the service’s top officer during and after the 1991 war with Iraq. > A decorated fighter pilot, General McPeak flew numerous combat missions in > the Vietnam War and told me the average miss distance for unguided Mark 80 > bombs then was around 100 meters. Paveway took the same basic bomb and > brought that distance down to just a couple of meters. > > The general took the issue up directly with the secretary of the Air Force > at the time, Donald B. Rice > <https://nl.nytimes.com/f/a/DsxdTvxgUMblc3KznzD47Q~~/AAAAAQA~/RgRipcdoP0ThaHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuYWYubWlsL0Fib3V0LVVzL0Jpb2dyYXBoaWVzL0Rpc3BsYXkvQXJ0aWNsZS8xMDU4MTUvZHItZG9uYWxkLWItcmljZS8_Y2FtcGFpZ25faWQ9ODgmZW1jPWVkaXRfd2FyXzIwMjEwNjExJmluc3RhbmNlX2lkPTMyNzMxJm5sPWF0LXdhciZyZWdpX2lkPTcyODI3MTYyJnNlZ21lbnRfaWQ9NjA0MTgmdGU9MSZ1c2VyX2lkPWYxZmIyODVkMjkyZTE0YzQ0NmU4NTY4ZTc2MDljMGQ2VwNueXRCCmDCaELDYDQmsoJSFWRtb3phcnQxNzU2QGdtYWlsLmNvbVgEAAAAAA~~>. > Together they sketched out a design for a kit that could turn a Mark 80 > into a GPS-guided bomb that could find its target in any kind of weather, > and be far less expensive than Paveway. > > General McPeak insisted that those kits had to cost no more than $20,000 > apiece. And before the end of the decade, a McDonnell Douglas plant in St. > Louis began making JDAM kits for the Air Force and Navy. > Continue reading the main story <#m_4568342648294664102_a11y-skip-2> > > > The bombing of a residential building on Al-Wehda Street in the center of > Al-Rimal neighborhood in Gaza City. Two people were killed, 10 were injured > and the Ministry of Health headquarters was damaged. Hosam Salem for The > New York Times > > By March 2002, as American warplanes were dropping scores of JDAMs in > Afghanistan, that plant in Missouri was running shifts around the clock > <https://nl.nytimes.com/f/newsletter/pmOD3Lthe24nxQD64Z8zKA~~/AAAAAQA~/RgRipcdoP4QEAWh0dHBzOi8vd3d3Lm55dGltZXMuY29tLzIwMDIvMDMvMTAvd2Vla2lucmV2aWV3L2lkZWFzLXRyZW5kcy1nYW1lLXBsYW4td2hlcmUtZG9lcy1waGFzZS0yLXN0YXJ0LWluLWFmZ2hhbmlzdGFuLmh0bWw_Y2FtcGFpZ25faWQ9ODgmZW1jPWVkaXRfd2FyXzIwMjEwNjExJmluc3RhbmNlX2lkPTMyNzMxJm5sPWF0LXdhciZyZWdpX2lkPTcyODI3MTYyJnNlZ21lbnRfaWQ9NjA0MTgmdGU9MSZ1c2VyX2lkPWYxZmIyODVkMjkyZTE0YzQ0NmU4NTY4ZTc2MDljMGQ2VwNueXRCCmDCaELDYDQmsoJSFWRtb3phcnQxNzU2QGdtYWlsLmNvbVgEAAAAAA~~> > to keep up with demand. In December 2004, Boeing, which bought McDonnell > Douglas > <https://nl.nytimes.com/f/a/1ew-8rLVKqbXHeDCa18EMQ~~/AAAAAQA~/RgRipcdoP0TdaHR0cHM6Ly93d3cubnl0aW1lcy5jb20vMTk5Ni8xMi8xNi9uZXdzL2JvZWluZy10by1idXktbWNkb25uZWxsLWRvdWdsYXMuaHRtbD9jYW1wYWlnbl9pZD04OCZlbWM9ZWRpdF93YXJfMjAyMTA2MTEmaW5zdGFuY2VfaWQ9MzI3MzEmbmw9YXQtd2FyJnJlZ2lfaWQ9NzI4MjcxNjImc2VnbWVudF9pZD02MDQxOCZ0ZT0xJnVzZXJfaWQ9ZjFmYjI4NWQyOTJlMTRjNDQ2ZTg1NjhlNzYwOWMwZDZXA255dEIKYMJoQsNgNCayglIVZG1vemFydDE3NTZAZ21haWwuY29tWAQAAAAA> > and its St. Louis plant, announced it had built 100,000 JDAM kits. By > August 2013, Boeing had made a quarter million of them. In December 2019, > the last time Boeing publicly disclosed production figures, it had made > more than 400,000 JDAM kits. > > JDAM sales to foreign allies ran in the hundreds of millions of dollars, > with Israel among its customers. > > And last month, videos taken in both Israel and Gaza showed some of these > JDAMs on their final journeys. It started in Garland, Texas, where General > Dynamics forges the Mark 80’s steel body, then continued on to McAlester, > Okla., where those empty shells are filled with explosives, sealed, painted > and packed for delivery. Those shipments eventually made their way into > Israeli ammunition bunkers, quite likely stored not far from the guidance > kits made in Boeing’s St. Louis plant. On or near the flight line, airmen > joined them together and hung the finished product on ejection racks for > their terminal destination in Gaza. > > It is a somewhat strange thing to see this bomb — itself a confluence of > weapon parts both old and new — being used in a seemingly intractable and > generations-old fight far away from both the places it was made and the > battles it was meant for, killing civilians and Hamas fighters alike. > > But American control over such things slipped away long ago. > > Making Mark 80 bombs is relatively easy for many countries now, even those > outside NATO like Australia, Brazil, Chile, India, Israel, Pakistan, South > Africa, Switzerland and the United Arab Emirates, which all advertise their > own versions essentially identical to those made in the United States. And > many are making their own guidance kits to attach to them, similar to those > invented in America and sold widely abroad. > > This genie has slipped out of its bottle and the United States has very > little it can do to put it back in. > > — John > > John Ismay is a Pentagon correspondent in the Washington bureau, and > previously served as the At War reporter covering armed conflict for The > New York Times Magazine. He can be reached at [email protected]. > -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Groups.io Links: You receive all messages sent to this group. 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