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South African Alpha Bomb & Successor.

Sprockets

Well-Known Member
After the Rhodesian Air force developed this submunition, utilising a rubber casing to ensure a "bounce", the idea was taken up by S.A, who had tacitly assisted Rhodesia. The unusual allways fuze on the Alpha had two safety- pins, and was designed by someone who had no previous armament experience. Does anyone have access to a sectional drawing of same, as the only crude drawings available seem to suggest a bunch of segments was used?

After being productionised in S.A. the arming mechanism was changed completly. As the tail-fins of the mother bomb were inclined, this would suggest that centrifugal force was used, and perhaps an inertia element was also introduced to sense the launching velocity after being propelled from a tube by a launching charge. Again, is a sectional drawing or any other information available. Perhaps Andy Naude might know more?

Some of these weapons were found in Iraq, so perhaps someone around gained experience of the modus operandi when safing same?

Regards,

Martin.
 
Managed to find this for you.

Managed this diagram of the Rhodesian version. Hope it helps ?

IMG_0835.JPG

IMG_0836.JPG



IMG_0837.JPG

Alpha bombs being dropped.

IMG_0838.JPG
 
Andy Naude+

Many thanks for that excellent illustration of an "Alpha" munition. I have seen it before, but so blurred and coloured as to be incomprehensible. The drawing has mysterious areas of black, as if the Indian ink had run when creating the section. There is also one drawing error, where the top screwed ring (Turned by a Pin Driver) retaining the fuze parts is shown as an integral part of a sleeve on the L.H.S., and a separate piece on the R.H.S, which it must be to enable assembly. Thanks to your drawing, the allways fuze, for lateral impact, would seem to be operated by a ring (Topmost Part 9), having a hole formed by two conical bores meeting in the middle, and the resultant ridge bearing on the stem of the striker. The ring being displaced would tilt the striker,whose lower flange, in contact with a vee ring, would tilt and thus bring the striker into contact with the cap. There is another dwg. error, with the Cap carrying sleeve (Lowest part 9) shown as having a separate flange. If this was the case, the longest safety pin would not be able to prevent said Cap-sleeve moving upwards. What a job unscrewing each Central Safety pin (Mysterious holes in head of same, perhaps wire locking holes)and pulling both pins out! I understand that it was intrinsically dangerous, as there was no safety during carriage, other than using a very strong spring. If one fell on soft ground, it could fail to detonate as consequence, but it was found that local kids were detonating them by throwing at trees. Considering it was designed by an engineer who had no previous experience, and having to use toy rubber balls, rather than unavailable rubber moulding facilities, it was quite anachivement. I think one of the designers recorded the development of this on an audio tape, but I doubt anyone has heard same.

The Rhodesian Air Force were most original,even developing the most advanced Golf bomb, not much information of which is available.

Finally, would you know anyone who might have had experience with the CB470, the S.A. productionised version of the Alpha.
Many thanks.
 
The 450kg Golf Bomb
(This information is extracted from Winds of Destruction by P.J.H. Petter-Bowyer)
This bomb, developed for and by the Rhodesian Air Force, was employed operationally from early 1977.
The 450kg version was designed for use by the Hawker Hunter FGA9.
A smaller version nicknamed Mini Golf was introduced later to give light propeller driven aircraft a huge punch off a low level attack profile. As it happened only the Reims-Cessna F337, converted by Rhodesia for armed use, employed the Mini Golf. This modified aircraft was known as Lynx.
The proboscis of the Golf Bomb (and later mini Golf) was designed to detonate the bomb above ground in a manner that limited energy losses to ground and upper air mass. Simultaneous initiation at front and rear of the explosive charge provided a 'squeeze' effect that concentrated energy low and flat across target ground.
The 450kg Golf Bomb employed double steel plating to sandwich thousands of pieces of chopped 10mm steel rod. The double skin and chopped rod driven by the high-volume gas generating explosive ("Anfo" = the Rhodesian name for Amatol mixed with a small quantity of diesel fuel) when added to shredded vegetation proved Golf Bomb to be a truly devastating weapon. A pair of these bombs gave a bush flattening-pattern 90 metres wide by 135 metres in the line of attack with lethal effects extending beyond.
To maximize blast effect each bomb was fitted with a one-metre long proboscis to ensure airburst. To minimize energy losses downward and upward, and to maximiZe ground over-pressure, simultaneous initiation of Pentolite booster charges at the front and rear of the ANFO charge resulted in a very satisfactory squeeze effect. In doing this, each bomb flattened everything around the point of contact and no energy was lost to punching out ground craters.
The entire tailpiece was usually found at the centre of detonation proving that almost no energy was going skyward.
During early tests each pair of bombs landed close together; so the Rhodesians decided to improve the 90-metre diameter bush-clearing effect by retarding one bomb to force it to fall short of the un-retarded one. Spring-loaded metal paddles were used initially but these were clumsy and inefficient. They were discarded as soon as the Rhodesians learned how to absorb the high shock loading involved in deploying their own designed and manufactured drogue chutes. The drogue chutes worked well and forced the retarded bomb to fall about 35 metres short of the streamlined unit. From then on a pair of ANFO bombs gave a bush flattening-pattern 90 metres wide by 135 metres in the line of attack.
450 kg Golf bombs were cleared for operational use in March 1977.
Testing continued for some time thereafter, resulting in the ANFO bombs being upgraded with double steel cylinders sandwiching thousands of pieces of chopped 10mm steel rod to give lethal shrapnel effect beyond the over-pressure boundaries.
Although officially termed 450 kg HP bombs, the project title stuck and everyone knew them as Golf Bombs.

From other sources:
Golf bomb - A Rhodesian invention with the appearance of a gas cylinder one and a half meters high and weighing 460 kilos; this percussion bomb contained amatol which was detonated by a tube one metre long at the nose of the cylinder which struck the ground first. On detonation the casing burst into over, 80,000 fragments lethal at 60 meters with an accompanying stun effect for a further 60. A Hunter could carry 2 golf bombs. There was also a mini golf bomb of 80 kilos for light aircraft such as lynx).
It was a 450kg bomb, consisting of double steel cylinders conventionally shaped, between which thousands of pieces of chopped 10mm steel rod had been encased.. There were two pentolite booster charges, one at the front & one at the rear, both simultaneously initiated when the meter long proboscis impacted with the ground, causing an airburst. The filling was ANFO, manufactured locally by mixing prilled ammonium nitrate with a small quantity of diesel fuel, giving the benefit of equally damaging explosion & implosion.
The tail unit incorporated locally designed & manufactured drogue chutes which caused the bomb to become vertical before impact.
They also provided adequate separation when the bombs were dropped in pairs & produced a bush flattening area 90 meters wide by 135 meters in line of attack. These bombs became operational in March 1977 and were very effectively used by the Hunter & Canberra aircraft on airstrike operations thereafter.

Mini-Golf Bombs: The operational limitations of the Lynx aircraft soon became apparent in the field resulting in frustrations in being unable to effectively combat terrorists in areas where they were known to be but had not been pinpointed. This caused the Team to investigate the development of a mini-golf bomb which could be used adequately by the Lynx. Certain modifications were required to facilitate use by this aircraft. First, safety features needed to be embodied to cater for low level release from this slow flying aircraft. The thin skinned inner steel cylinder, also surrounded by steel slugs & outwardly covered by a steel casing, had no tail unit. When the bomb was released from the aircraft, a large drogue parachute was deployed which severely retarded the bomb & caused it to pitch vertically before impact with the ground. Housed in the nose cone was a steel sphere containing an electric switch device & five meters of electrical cable. When the parachute was deployed, the steel sphere was released & dropped below the bomb to the extent of the 5 meters of cable, causing the batteries to become aligned, completing a link between the electrical switch in the sphere & the detonator in the bomb, positioned at the rear of the ANFO bomb filling. Tests proved that the optimum release height was 300 ft AGL, giving effective over-pressure & dense shrapnel cover to 30 - 40 meters radius, depending on bush density. Soon after clearance for operational use the mini-golf bomb proved a more than satisfactory success.

1) Golf Bomb

cfdisplay29-05-07-008.jpg golfbomb480x595.jpg~original.jpeg

2) Golf bomb among Hunter Armament display
RHOHUNT.jpgzim_airshow_hunter_static4.jpg~original.jpegzim_airshow_hunter-static1.jpg~original.jpeg

3) Mini-Golf Bomb
Mark 1 Mini Golf bombs (not used for very long).jpeg
 
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Thanks, Dreamk,
For that most interesting report on some of the other munitions that Rhodesia produced. It is amazing that so few personnel, and very limited manufacturing, could produce such inspired items. I believe that Rhodesia also had a handful of people who worked on clandestine poison gas and biological warfare, which was actually used !
 
I have just seen an image of an "Alpha" bomblet and fuze, and it shows that there is an undercut recess in the top of the fuze, into which a spring clip, attached to the carrier, engages. Thus. upon ejection, the pin carrying the recess will be either removed or pulled, freeing the allways fuze. Perhaps there is a shear pin holding the safety pin, to ensure that the device has to be launched with a certain impulse.

Being spherical. a bore-safe safety device could not be used.

Perhaps somebody now has a cutaway of the fuze and bomblet construction?
 
I understand you are speaking of this photograph?
This is in fact a South African produced Mk 2 Alpha Bomb from the arsenals of the Iraqi army. The mk2 is released from the CB470 cluster bomb while the original Rhodesian Mk1 was released from nets inside the bomb bay of Canberra airplanes (in groups of 50 inside six hoppers fitted to the bomb bay)
alpha 79ac4311026c9244ade772fba3287fc4.jpg

These are the cutaway drawings I got. I'll try to get more info on the fuze.
Alpha bouncing bomb IMG_0835.JPGalpha download.jpgAlphaBombSmall.jpg~original.jpeg

There is a good article on these bombs here:
https://en.topwar.ru/130990-aviacionnaya-bomba-mk-2-alpha-rodeziya.html
and here:
https://www.weaponews.com/weapons/19501-aircraft-bomb-mk-2-alpha-rhodesia.html
 
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Thanks, Dreamk,
I had not realised that it was so large. Interesting that originally, I believe, toy rubber balls were used in Rhodesia, as they had no rubber moulding facilities. However, it seems that Alpha 2, the S A version, still retained this, as the space between the balls would allow the rubber to be displaced, despite being contained inside a sealed container. I imagine welding the halves together, without the heat damaging the rubber, must have led to interesting problems.

The illustrations of the original fuze at first puzzled me, but I think the separate parts of the firing "pendulum" are in fact connected together, a single piece of metal being partially separated. Thus the impact would have to be severe enough to tear the remaining web, ensuring that children playing with it would not cause detonation.

I think that each submunition(Alpha 2) is mounted on a spigot, sprung into the recessed head of the fuze plunger. The spigot might be mounted on a piston, explosively moved through a limited distance. As the piston is stopped, the bomblet would be freed from the spring grip, after extracting the arming plunger. This is mostly surmise, as I have never seen the launching device, ot the inside of the allways fuze. If anyone knows of an illustration, that would be a real bonus!
 
Thanks, Eggburt,
That is amazing, but I see your point in saying that disseminating the information is not of any urgency, as I can't imagine that that many remain! From your remarks, I can conclude that the description does not actually have a drawing of the fuze or launching mechanism! It seems that the USA was not interested when it came across Sadam's stockpile, as it would have a limited application, relying on a hard surface, and an unarmoured target, as many of the fregments would be dissipated harmlessly skywards.
 
Thanks, Eggburt,
That is amazing, but I see your point in saying that disseminating the information is not of any urgency, as I can't imagine that that many remain! From your remarks, I can conclude that the description does not actually have a drawing of the fuze or launching mechanism! It seems that the USA was not interested when it came across Sadam's stockpile, as it would have a limited application, relying on a hard surface, and an unarmoured target, as many of the fragments would be dissipated harmlessly skywards.


We have actual fuzes, whole and sectioned, as per the bombs, so we know how it works. Plus we disassembled loads of them for later destruction, so again we know how it works.

Details visible in the entry description depends on the user level of access. The average punter does not need to know the ins and outs of the whole munitions construction and operation, so that's kept for higher level customers, if they want it.
 
We have actual fuzes, whole and sectioned, as per the bombs, so we know how it works. Plus we disassembled loads of them for later destruction, so again we know how it works.

Details visible in the entry description depends on the user level of access. The average punter does not need to know the ins and outs of the whole munitions construction and operation, so that's kept for higher level customers, if they want it.

Thanks, Eggburt,
You must be the world experts on this munition-I doubt that Saddam expected some of his weapons would end up in blighty! I would have thought that. needing a firm impact surface,theywould have had linited use in much of his country?
You have beaten pzgr49 to the cut!
 
Thanks, Eggburt,
You must be the world experts on this munition-I doubt that Saddam expected some of his weapons would end up in blighty! I would have thought that. needing a firm impact surface,theywould have had linited use in much of his country?
You have beaten pzgr49 to the cut!


Hmm, it's not one I've analysed all that much to be honest. All the demil work was done before I joined the company. I fleshed-out and cleaned-up the entry a bit, but haven't spent that much time on it. My ultimate boss (C. King) would be the expert on it.

Generally other munitions are of a far higher priority to customers/users than the Alpha Bomb/R1M1. These are mostly things being used in the Ukraine conflict and hence of Soviet/Russian Federation origin. Though saying that certain Western munitions, weapon systems and platforms are of course being used and require priority coverage.

Well pzgr49 does so some rather good sections, but it's Mr King who does all that sort of thing, along with developing and producing bespoke replicas and surrogates. My skill set generally does not cover making things.
 
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