BL755

BL755
Type	Anti-armour cluster bomb
Place of origin	United Kingdom
Service history
Used by	Royal Air Force, Royal Navy
Wars	Falklands War, 1991 Gulf War, Croatian War of Independence, Bosnian War, Yemeni civil war
Production history
Designer	Hunting Engineering, Ltd.
Manufacturer	Hunting Engineering, Ltd.
Produced	since 1972
No. built	As of 1 January 1996, 60,598 bombs and 8,925,906 submunitions[1]
Variants	BL755, IBL755, RBL755
Specifications
Mass	264 kg (582 lb)
Length	2,451 mm (8 ft 0.5 in)
Diameter	419 mm (16.5 in)

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 Its role has been replaced by the CRV7, an air-to-ground rocket with such improved performance that it is effective even in the face of the ZSU.