What is this thing? (obviously not a firearm)

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Departed402

New member
My Great-Uncle, who was a Sergeant in the USAF and served in Korea, recently passed away. My father came across this oddity while going through his things. My father says my uncle had mentioned this item, but it wasn't discussed too much. My father seems to recall my Great-Uncle telling him that it was an explosive devise dropped from planes.

Much of the item has been painted blue, which certainly supports the idea that it is a [now inert] piece of military ordinance. It has many small "dots" all over it's surface which appear to be metal. The metallic looking "hemisphere" appears to be 4 separate parts that look like they can be slid back and forth out of slots and then pulled out. Also, it would almost look like that if someone were to slide the 4 hemisphere pieces our of their slots the item could be pulled apart into two pieces. Does anyone know what this thing is called, and how it was used?





 
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PetahW

New member
figb-6.jpg


The ball-type submunitions are APERS - They are very small and are delivered on known concentrations of enemy personnel, scattered across an area.

Like a land mine, it will not blow up until pressure is put on it.

Saturation of unexploded submunitions has become a characteristic of the modern battlefield.

Studies that show 40 percent of the duds on the ground are hazardous and for each encounter with an unexploded submunition there is a 13 percent probability of detonation.
Thus, even though an unexploded submunition is run over, kicked, stepped on, or otherwise disturbed, and did not detonate, it is not safe.
Handling the unexploded submunition may eventually result in arming and subsequent detonation.



The one in your hand doesn't look exploded.......................:eek:




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Armed_Chicagoan

New member
:eek: You really should get that thing out of your house and call your local police/national guard bomb squad to dispose of it.

Some things are just too dangerous to be heirlooms! Unless you know for certain it is deactivated or just an inert demonstration piece.
 
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Mike Irwin

Staff
May or may not be true, depending on the specific munition type, Pete.

A huge variety of muntions, all quite similiar, are in that class.

If that is what I think it is (as noted in my previous), it can be delivered either as a time delay detonation, an air burst, or impact detonation, but it doesn't come in a pressure-sensitive landmine configuration, which as far as I can tell, don't have an outer casing studded with shrapnel.

Most of the CBU delivered landmines seem to follow the BLU-92/B pattern.
 
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Pahoo

New member
Practice, cluster bomblet ???

It appears to be a BLU-26B or a BLU-59 cluster bomblet.
Click to expand...
Might be a "practice" cluster bomb. Surprisingly yours isn't cracked or damaged. I recently sold six of these to a dealer and he liked having them on his table as they were a source of many conversations. .. ;)

Confirm and;
Be Safe !!!
 
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Pahoo

New member
Now Suspect !!!

"it's a "practice" cluster bomb." ... One would hope...
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Mike, you encouraged me to go back and take a second look and now suspect that it might not be a "practice" cluster bomb. The reason I now say this, is that the ones I had, did not have metal strips and BB's, that I see on the second look.
Thanks Mike.. :confused:

Departed402
Strongly suggest you get this checked out by and ordinance expert as opposed to a GS Groupie. ..... :eek:


Confirm and;
Be Safe !!!
 
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Two Old Dogs

New member
This is a type of anti-personnel cluster bomb. The steel balls are embedded in a pot metal (zinc, aluminum, etc.) type matrix and the metal bands hold the two halves of the bomblet together.

The blue paint, if it is original signifies an inert practice item.

When dropped, the vanes on the live bomblets cause it to spin and this arms the internal fuse which is of the all-ways acting type meaning no matter what attitude the bomblet is in when it hits something solid (earth, tree runway, building, etc.) the fuse will detonate the bomblet. Although very reliable, the firing mechanism inside the fuse can malfunction.

At this point the unexploded bomblet can be detonated by any outside force acting on it in a manner that will release the firing pin and detonate the bomblet. This can happen even if you just pick it up and turn it over.

Explosive loaded bomblets are painted olive drab in the U.S. If you encounter one do not disturb it and call Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD).

This is advice from a former Explosive Ordnance Disposal Officer and Instructor.
 
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csmsss

New member
IMHO he finish on that device looks a whole lot darker and a whole lot greener than the powder blue normally used to paint inert munitions. It doesn't look like it's been repainted to me (the brass parts don't have any brush marks or overspray).

Over time, the hue of paint can change - it can become darker or lighter, as well. If I were to match the color of this device to an existing paint color, it would be bronze green.

I don't know of any way to safely inspect this thing to determine whether it is inert or not. Not going to tell anyone what to do, but I wouldn't want to be within 100 yards of it.
 
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Mike Irwin

Staff
Here's a reminder of what can happen when you screw around with things that are NOT your friend...

"Tulsa, Okla. — A man is in the hospital after a type of grenade blows up in his hand late Saturday evening."

http://www.krmg.com/news/news/local/man-tries-fix-grenade-man-loses-fingers/nZqWg/



The writer gets the wry comment of the year for this line, though...

"Tulsa police say the man was trying to make a non-functional grenade functional again and he succeeded."
 
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Mike Irwin

Staff
I agree with csmsss...

That is NOT "inert ordnance blue."

I've got a bunch of intert training items, and that color isn't anywhere near the color that has been used for decades. And I don't see "intert ordnance blue" changing to that color, either.
 
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BoogieMan

New member
If you take such an item to the ordinance disposal people. Will they inspect it and let you have it back? Or do they put in with a load of stuff and a couple lbs of C4 and destroy it?
 
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TXAZ

New member
+1 vote for calling the bomb squad. While its cool looking, it's not cool looking with shards & ball bearings inside flesh.
 
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