Bunker busters are bombs designed to penetrate heavily fortified structures, used to house sensitive equipment or high-profile individuals. They must be heavy and narrow, with a timed explosion after penetration. Development of bunker busters led to an arms race between nations.
A bunker buster is a bomb designed to penetrate heavy fortifications, such as underground structures or reinforced structures above ground. Various versions of the bunker buster have been used since WWII, with a number of servicemen designing their own versions. Nuclear versions are also available, although nuclear bunker busters are controversial due to concerns about nuclear weapons fallout, contamination, and proliferation.
The development of the bunker buster was made possible by the invention of military aircraft that could be used to drop bombs from great heights. This made bomb deployment significantly safer and allowed nations to develop extremely heavy and large bombs that could not have been transported by other means.
Fortified bunkers are built to withstand tanks, bombs and other types of conventional attacks. They are used to house sensitive equipment, high-profile individuals, and other materials considered important to a war effort. By designing a bomb capable of penetrating heavily fortified structures, a military can often strike at the nerve center of an enemy government or military.
To work effectively, a bunker buster must be able to penetrate a fortification and then explode, rather than conventional bombs, which classically detonate on impact. The explosion after penetration is timed to inflict damage on the core of the bunker, rather than just damaging the exterior, an event which may be plausible for many bunkers.
To achieve this, a bunker buster is extremely heavy and narrow for its size. This allows the weapon to gain speed when deployed from an aircraft, so it can bury itself inside a structure or underground. Some bunker busters have rocket motors that propel the bomb, allowing it to pass through very thick fortifications. The fuse can be delayed, remotely triggered, or linked to the movement of the bomb, detonating it once it has penetrated a fortification.
With the development of bunker busters, of course, many nations increased the levels of their fortifications to make it more difficult for these specialized bombs to penetrate. This creates a form of arms race, where the military is forced to design better bunker busters, and opponents respond by making their fortifications and bunkers even stronger. The technology involved in building fortifications and bunker busters is usually classified, so that enemy nations cannot acquire it and use it to design their own military equipment accordingly.
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