The Monster Bomb that Turned Ground into Butter

I was a Weapons Systems Specialist with the 48th FW, stationed in Taif, Saudi Arabia, during Desert Shield/Storm. Fancy title for bomb loader. We knew ahead of time, that the GBU-28's were inbound from the states, and my crew and I were trying to be the ones who got the upload duty with those beauties, but that went to a crew that was on the day shift, and me and my crew loaded only at night. Nevertheless, I did get to see it on the ramp, before it went on its mission, and took a bunch of pics of them on our F-111F's. The aircraft had to have two MK-84s's (2000 lbs each) loaded on stations 3 & 4 on the left wing, just to get the balance close during flight. My crew and I loaded 352,500 lbs of live munitions, but would have LOVED to stake claim to those bad boys!

I was an Air Traffic Controller at Taif during Desert Storm, worked in the Radar Approach Control. If memory serves, we had approx 100 F-111’s (F & EF models). It was quite a sight watching them take off with full afterburners. They all departed as a group and returned as a group. It was a challenge to separate so many aircraft at once. Good times!

thank you very much for the red circle at 0:45 i wouldnt have seen the hole without it

"Turned Ground into Butter" Combine that with a device that turns ground into bread, and you have solved world hunger!

All based on the work of the GENIUS Barnes Wallace who dreamt this bomb up before WW2, he viewed that destroying Enemy Infrastructure in the 1930s. It was not until they could get the casting technology right and a plane with a bomb bay big enough. I think it was 1943 that the bomb was made, from memory it took 2 weeks to fill and weighed 10Tonnes, then it was fitted to the Lancaster. This video should read an update of Barnes Wallace 1930 design. I think grandslam penetrated the ground to 100M and then 10 tonnes of torpedo went bang. It would sink bridges on foundations as it turned the ground to liquid.

Bunker busters were first invented, introduced and used by the RAF during WW2 in order to penetrate German U-boat pens. They were carried by Lancaster bombers as no other aircraft could carry that weight.

that barrel thing wasnt the first time that was suggested. you should make a video on the world war 2 style bunker busters. they made one called the amazon, the sampson and the Disney. they were all over 20000 pounds!

The British used 12,000 pound and 20,000 pound bunker busters in WW2, to attack u-boat pens and the German battleship Tirpitz.

Don't know what was used but a news report last week about Gaza said 200 feet underground "was not enough". One of the capabilities mentioned years ago is serial bunker busters. The first bomb goes in and blows, and the second bomb follows into the hole made by the first bomb and continues deeper. Sounds good to me.

Easily one of my favorite channels

Great stuff. Informative without fluff.

Imagine the oh shit moment when you see a warhead poke through your bunker ceiling!

Never underestimate the human's ability to kill each other with impunity

Love these videos

And the USAF decided to go with the GBU-57 MOP (Massive Ordnance Penetrator). Also, I'm stoked to see that you used footage of AMMO troops in the video, as I was one for my 12 year Air Force career. Most times in videos like this they'll only show the loaders, which in the Air Force is a completely different AFSC/MOS.

During Ops Enduring Freedom, I was deployed to Al Taji base for 18 months.

Dark. This is an excellent video. Keep up the great work 👍

Note to self: never build a bunker less than 1 kilometer deep, and reinforce it with 50 feet of concrete.

Another perfect channel my friend.

You can thank Machinists and toolmakers for making this possible.