Their reliance on atmospheric oxygen makes them unsuitable for use under water, at high altitude, and in adverse weather. Most conventional explosives consist of a fuel– oxidizer premix ( black powder, for example, contains 25% fuel and 75% oxidizer), whereas thermobaric weapons are almost 100% fuel, so thermobaric weapons are significantly more energetic than conventional condensed explosives of equal weight. The fuel–air explosive is one of the best-known types of thermobaric weapon. In practice, the blast wave typically produced by such a weapon is of a significantly longer duration than that produced by a conventional condensed explosive.
Blast from a US Navy fuel–air explosive used against a decommissioned ship, USS McNulty, 1972Ī thermobaric weapon, aerosol bomb, or vacuum bomb is a type of explosive that uses oxygen from the surrounding air to generate a high-temperature explosion.
