Named for a mythical medieval French sword, the BLU-107 Durandal is a bomb developed by the French company Matra (now MBDA France , a branch of EADS), specialized in the destruction of airport and airfield runways.
Durandal is designed to be dropped from low altitudes. The fall of the bomb is retarded by a parachute. When, due to the parachute action, the bomb is vertical, it fires a rocket booster that accelerates it into the runway surface. The bomb explodes after it has penetrated below the surface. This results in a large and difficult to repair crater in the runway.
Durandals weigh 204 kg (450 lb) and is 2.5 m (8 ft 2 in) long. The warhead is made of 150 kg (330 lb) of high explosives.
Use by Israel
The bomb was developed jointly by France and Israel during the 1960s to destroy air base runways. The weapon was used to devastating effect by the Israelis during the Six Day War.
The bomb was designed to be deployed from the French fighter-bombers which formed the central core of the Israeli Air Force's order of battle during the 1950s and 1960s. When dropped over a runway, the bomb was designed to fall to a certain altitude before a parachute deployed to slow its fall. A retro-rocket then fired, to stabilize the bomb at an attitude of sixty degrees from the perpendicular. Once the bomb reached a set altitude, a booster rocket would fire, causing the bomb to penetrate through runway concrete deep into the ground. Finally, the embedded bomb would explode, leaving a 5 metre deep crater in the tarmac that was impassable to enemy jet aircraft.
The development of these bombs was ordered long before the Six Day War was anticipated. Israeli military planners knew that mastery of the Middle East's skies was the key to Israeli survival in any war. Many of the Egyptian air bases, particularly the forward bases in the Sinai, lacked multiple runways. Thus, their entire compliment of aircraft could be neutralized by a single well-placed strike. The IAF's commander, Motti Hod, noted in reflection that "a jet aircraft is the deadliest weapon in existence -- in the sky. But on the ground, it is useless."
Several hundred Durandal bombs were employed in the first waves of the Israeli attack against the Egyptian air force , effectively immobilizing the bulk of Egypt's planes, which were then demolished by strafing and rocket fire from subsequent attack waves. The tactic was successful beyond the wildest dreams of IAF planners; within the first hour of the war, the Egyptian air force was battered to the point of tactical impotence by the loss of hundreds of planes. "A stone -- just one, but one of agonizing weight -- rolled off my heart," said Hod later regarding the success of the attack.
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Last updated: 05-23-2005 19:55:47
