BL755

rdf:langString BL755

rdf:langString BL755

rdf:langString BL755

rdf:langString yes

rdf:langString yes

rdf:langString aircraft

rdf:langString Hunting Engineering, Ltd.

rdf:langString United Kingdom

rdf:langString since 1972

rdf:langString Anti-armour cluster bomb

rdf:langString BL755, IBL755, RBL755

rdf:langString BL755 is a cluster bomb developed by Hunting Aircraft that contains 147 parachute-retarded high explosive anti-tank (HEAT) submunitions. Its primary targets are armoured vehicles and tanks with secondary soft target (anti personnel) capabilities. It entered service with the Royal Air Force (RAF) in 1973. BL755 was developed as a new-generation anti-tank weapon that would allow extremely low-level attacks against Soviet armoured formations. The introduction of the ZSU-23-4 Shilka self-propelled anti-aircraft gun rendered the pop-up attack profile demanded by iron bombs and air-to-ground rockets almost suicidal. The cluster munition would be dropped in pairs while the aircraft overflew the formation at 450 knots (830 km/h; 520 mph) and 300 feet altitude, covering an area of 1,000 by 500 feet (300 m × 150 m). The weapon's first use in combat was during the Falklands War where it was used in the anti-infantry role. When dropped from ultra-low altitudes, the bomblets proved to have a very high failure rate because the parachutes often did not deploy in time. A new version was ordered for the Gulf War that added a radar altimeter allowing release from medium altitudes and then opening at the proper altitude. As part of the 2007 Convention on Cluster Munitions negotiations, the RAF agreed to remove the BL755 from its inventory by 2008. Its role has been replaced by the CRV7, an air-to-ground rocket with such improved performance that it is effective even in the face of the ZSU.

rdf:langString unguided