Intuitive fred888: I thought Daisy Cutters and Cluster bombs were the same thing but actually they are very different.

They both kill hundreds of Trees or people and bushes and flowers and everything living within a given size but they do it differently. One is a huge 15,000 pound bomb that knocks down a whole lot of trees to land helicopters like in Viet Nam and also could wipe out a whole company of men somewhere. However, Cluster bombs aren't really for knocking down trees but for killing everything alive in an area maybe the size of a football field where everything living dies including animals, humans or sometimes even insects and plants. So, hundreds of cluster bombs often are dropped at the same time in clusters of small bombs that tear everything up and kill anything living.

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Cluster bombs and Daisy cutters are very different types of conventional weapons defined by how they deliver destruction: cluster bombs release many small submunitions over a wide area, while a Daisy cutter is a single massive bomb that detonates just above the ground using a long nose-probe fuse.

Cluster Bombs

Design: A single shell, bomb, or rocket that opens in mid-air to scatter dozens or hundreds of smaller submunitions (or "bomblets") across a broad zone.

Purpose: Designed to area-deny terrain, destroy scattered vehicle columns, and kill or injure personnel over wide multi-acre footprints.

Key Characteristic: High rates of unexploded duds often turn the target zone into a long-term hazard akin to a minefield.

Daisy Cutters

Design: Formally known as the BLU-82, this is a giant 15,000-pound conventional bomb containing over 12,000 pounds of explosive slurry. It features a long protruding nose-extender fuse that triggers the blast inches above the dirt.

Purpose: Originally built during the Vietnam War to instantly clear dense jungle canopy and create helicopter landing zones, and later used to shock cave complexes and clear minefields.

Key Characteristic: Relies on an immense horizontal shockwave rather than digging a deep crater, crushing surface targets via extreme atmospheric overpressure.

Reddit·r/Damnthatsinteresting
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Use of Daisy Cutter bombs in Vietnam for clearing landing zones
Jan 8, 2024 — The BLU-82B was developed for use in the Vietnam War. The need to solve the problem of finding a landing zone for helicopters to l...
Cambridge Dictionary
DAISY CUTTER definition | Cambridge English Dictionary
daisy cutter noun [C] (BOMB) ... a very powerful bomb dropped from an aircraft that is designed to explode just above the ground: ...

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Effects of Daisy Cutter Bombs

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BLU-82

Wikipedia

https://en.wikipedia.org › wiki › BLU-82

"Daisy Cutter" The Daisy Cutter has sometimes been incorrectly reported as a fuel-air explosive device (FAE). A conventional explosive is much more reliable