The American Military's Deadly Thermobaric Arsenal

Dave Majumdar

Security, United States

Both the thermobaric Hellfire and the SMAW-NE are weapons that were specifically developed for the Afghan war.

Russia has been using the devastating TOS-1 weapon against its foes in Syria, but the United States has also used its own thermobaric weapons against terrorists in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Since 2001, the United States has most recently used the BLU-118/B aircraft dropped thermobaric bomb, XM1060 40mm thermobaric grenade, Shoulder-Launched Multi Purpose Assault Weapon—Novel Explosive (SMAW-NE) and the AGM-114N Metal Augmented Charge (MAC) thermobaric Hellfire during the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. In Afghanistan, particularly, the weapons proved to be ideal in rooting out Taliban and Al Qaeda fighters hiding in caves and tunnels. But the weapons have been singled out for criticism—even if they are perfectly legal—because of their effects.

Human Rights Watch cited a 1993 study by the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency titled “Fuel-Air and Enhanced-Blast Explosive Technology—Foreign” which included the following description:

The [blast] kill mechanism against living targets is unique—and unpleasant.... What kills is the pressure wave, and more importantly, the subsequent rarefaction [vacuum], which ruptures the lungs.... If the fuel deflagrates but does not detonate, victims will be severely burned and will probably also inhale the burning fuel. Since the most common FAE fuels, ethylene oxide and propylene oxide, are highly toxic, undetonated FAE should prove as lethal to personnel caught within the cloud as most chemical agents.

Human Rights Watch also excerpts a separate 1990 Central Intelligence Agency study Central Intelligence Agency titled "Conventional Weapons Producing Chemical-Warfare-Agent-Like Injuries” that states: