From: thunder@rmii.com (Ed Rasimus)
Newsgroups: rec.aviation.military
Subject: Re: Now Attach the Bomb -- Oops!
Date: Wed, 28 Jan 1998 15:13:55 GMT

Carlo Kopp <Carlo.Kopp.NOSPAM@aus.net> wrote:

>> I read somewhere that it was caused by EMR from one of the radars, does
>> anyone know the mechanism for this setting of the zunis.
>
>Most likely the EM field induced a current in the wiring to the
>initiator to the Zuni sufficiently big to set it off....
>
>This technique has been proposed for microwave weapons intended to cause
>premature detonation of the other guy's ordnance.

Rockets have always been notoriously sensitive to static electricity
or induced current such as an RF field.

Carrying a couple of LAU-3 rocket pods on a 105 in SEA, I had moved
into close formation on my leader as we passed through a couple of
small cumulus clouds. Suddenly a half dozen of the rockets cooked off,
zooming out in front of the boss.

He was a fighter weapons grad and my flight commander, notorious for
his distaste of lieutenants who flew the 105. Sarcastically he said,
"keep your damn finger off the pickle button, two."

I said, "sure boss, if you'll tell me how I could fire only half the
rockets in a pod."

He took a hard look at the airplane and seeing the majority of the
nineteen rockets still aboard realized that it was an electrical build
up in the cloud that had fired them.

Strange stuff.


 Ed Rasimus                   *** Peak Computing Magazine
  Fighter Pilot (ret)         ***   (http://peak-computing.com)
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