The Air Force Wants Adjustable Bombs That Can Unleash a Lot of Hell—or Just a Little

Today’s bombs are fairly straightforward, in that a 500-pound bomb pretty much explodes the same way, every time. But tomorrow’s bombs will unleash only as much hell as they have to. 

The Air Force wants conventional bombs to have a “dial a yield” mechanism, borrowed from nuclear weapons, that allows a bomb to explode with full force, something less than full force, or to not explode at all. Sometimes a small explosion is a better explosion, because it would allow the military to bomb targets in closer proximity to civilians without killing them.

For years, U.S. nuclear weapons have had a “dial a yield” capability that allows the operator to select the weapon’s explosive power. The B61-12 nuclear gravity bomb, for example, can be set to explode with the power of 300 tons, 1,500 tons, 10,000 tons, or 50,000 tons of TNT. This gives the operator great flexibility, scaling the bomb’s power down to attack a formation of enemy tanks or up to devastate a large complex.