Russia tests nuclear-like 'vacuum bomb' - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

Russia tests nuclear-like 'vacuum bomb' - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

Russia tests nuclear-like 'vacuum bomb'
By Ashley Hall
Posted 7 hours 22 minutes ago

Russia-watchers say the vacuum bomb test was designed to bolster political support for Russian President Vladimir Putin.

(Video: Russia unveils devastating vacuum bomb (ABC News)
Audio: Russia tests new vacuum bomb (The World Today)

Russia has reasserted its role on the international stage by testing a new style of bomb which it claims is four times as destructive as any comparable US device.

The seven-tonne "vacuum bomb" has been described by the Russian military as being as powerful as a nuclear blast.
Russia-watchers say the test was designed to bolster political support for Russian President Vladimir Putin.

The test was announced on Russian television. The video showed a strategic bomber dropping the device over a testing ground, then a large explosion.

Left behind - a flattened block of flats surrounded by scorched earth.

Director of operations and capabilities at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, Andrew Davies, says this type of bomb is also known as a fuel air device.

In operation, it is quite similar to what happens when a cloud of coal dust or grain explodes.

"It's a two-stage process. The initial charge disperses a fuel into a cloud of a very small droplets and then the secondary charge then detonates the whole thing, and what you get is a great big 'woof' essentially," he said.

The US used the technology in the so-called "daisy cutter" bombs it used during the Vietnam War to clear minefields and helicopter landing sites.

"You basically drop one of these things so that it would detonate above the canopy, create a big cloud and the blast wave would basically clear a spot where a helicopter could land in," Mr Davies said.

Explosive power

The Russian military claims its new bomb has the explosive power of a nuclear device, but does none of the long-term environmental damage - and its target would be terrorists.

Dr Alexey Muraviev is a strategic affairs analyst at Curtin University of Technology.

He says Russia's President Vladimir Putin is keen to reassert the country's role on the international stage.

"It's obviously on continuation of the demonstration of Russia's plans to restore its deteriorated defence capability," he said.

"And certainly [it's] ... a signal to other principle halls of power - notably the United States - that the Russians have the capacity to respond to any ... security threats."

Dr Muraviev also says it's just as important for Mr Putin to show his might at home.

"It's definitely a message not only designed to 'satisfy' the Western consumer, but obviously it is also targeted at a domestic electorate - given the fact that Russia is well into the election circle, with parliamentary elections scheduled for December of this year and presidential elections scheduled for early next year," he said.

"Definitely, Russians want to be reassured that the Government that is currently in power and the political success of Putin ... has done enough to restore the damaged pride of great Russia."

Russia says the new bomb does not contravene any international treaties, so it should not spark a new arms race.
But Dr Muraviev says the Russian test is clearly a response to a test the US conducted on its own big vacuum bomb before it invaded Iraq.

The US bomb was known as the "mother of all bombs". Russia says its device is the "father of all bombs".

"The Russians came back with a symmetrical response saying that if you've got this device, we've developed a similar device which is more effective, more powerful and to deliver a bit more humiliation to their American friends - as they call them," he said.

"They obviously named this device the 'father of all bombs' to just try to uplift its significance and obviously gain a bit of an advantage over the symbolism."

But despite the symbolism, the Australian Strategic Policy Institute's Mr Davies says the new bomb will have little impact on military planning in the region.

"It's just an air-dropped weapon. It has no, what they call, stand-off capability, you can't fire it from hundreds of kilometres away," he said.

"So in military terms you've got to put a huge aircraft directly over the path of the target. So it doesn't present a threat to the West in any meaningful way. It really is just an exercise in sabre-rattling."