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This article is about explosive devices. Bomb can also refer to water bombs
or volcanic bombs. Bomb is also a slang term.
A bomb is an explosive device, usually some kind of container filled with explosive material, designed to cause destruction when set off. The explosion of the bomb has to
be triggered, usually by a clock, a remote control, or some kind of sensor, usually pressure (altitude), radar, or contact. The word comes from the Greek
bombos, an onomatopoeic term with approximately the same meaning
as "boom" in English.
Bombs are first and foremost weapons; the term "bomb" is not usually applied to explosive devices used for civilian purposes
(such as construction or mining). They have been used for centuries in warfare and
are a central part of the terrorist's arsenal. They fall into three distinct
categories: conventional (filled with chemical explosives), dispersive (filled with submunitions, chemicals or other disruptive
agents which are spread on or shortly before impact) or nuclear (relying on nuclear fission or nuclear fusion for their
effect).
A distinction is commonly drawn between terrorist and military bombs. The latter are almost always mass-produced weapons,
developed and constructed to a standard design out of standard components and intended to be deployed in a standard way each
time. By contrast, terrorist bombs are usually custom-made, developed to any number of designs, use a wide range of explosives of
varying levels of power and chemical stability, and are used in many different ways. For this reason, they are generally referred
to as improvised explosive devices or
IEDs.
The most powerful bomb in existence is the hydrogen bomb, a nuclear weapon. The most powerful non-nuclear bomb is the United States Air Force's MOAB (Massive Ordnance Air Burst).
- BLU = Bomb/mine Live Unit
- GBU = Guided Bomb Unit
- LGB = Laser Guided Bomb
- C-4 = a variant of plastique explosive
See also
External Link
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