ABSTRACT
The quote from The Hurt Locker referenced Improvised Explosive Devices but is also applicable to conventional ordnance. The largest bomb in current US inventory is the guided bomb units-43/B Massive Ordnance Airblast Bomb weighing 21,000lb. This chapter analyses aerial bombs and dispensers, focuses on identifiable characteristics driving safety precautions. Dispensers are hollow containers, filled with a payload of submunitions or scatterable mines. Other names for aerial dispensers include Cluster Bomb Unit and Aerial Stores Release or Suspension Unit. A dispenser is fixed on an aircraft with lugs or cleats. The primary difference between retained and dropped dispensers is that a retained dispenser remains fixed to the aircraft when its payload is deployed, while a dropped dispenser is deployed from the aircraft in a similar fashion as a bomb. Dispensers are fixed with lugs or cleats to secure them to an aircraft.
