AN-M30A1 (100 lb)
Contents
Description
The AN-M30A1 (100 lb) is an American general purpose high explosive (HE) bomb.
The AN-M30A1 is an air-dropped bomb which utilises a combination of blast damage, penetration and fragmentation during its explosive effect. Typically the general purpose bombs are used when targeting either enemy troops, vehicles and buildings.
General purpose bombs are aerodynamic in shape and have stabilising fins to enable accurate drop locations when sighted, targeted and released by a bombardier. The aerodynamic effect also benefits aircraft which carry the bombs on external payload pylons.
Vehicles equipped with this weapon
| Vehicles equipped with this weapon | |
|---|---|
| Fighters | |
| F2A | F2A-3 |
| F3F | F3F-2 · Galer's F3F-2 |
| F4F | F4F-3 · F4F-4 |
| F4U | F4U-4 |
| P-26 | P-26A-33 · P-26A-34 · P-26A-34 M2 · P-26B-35 |
| P-40 | P-40E-1 · P-40F-10 |
| P-51 | A-36 · P-51 · P-51A · ▄Mustang Mk IA · P-51D-10 · P-51D-5 · P-51H-5-NA |
| Jet fighters | |
| F-84 | F-84B-26 · F-84G-21-RE · ▄F-84G-26-RE · ▄F-84G-21-RE |
| F9F | F9F-2 · F9F-5 |
| Attackers | |
| A-26 | A-26B-50 · A-26B-10 |
| OS2U | OS2U-1 · OS2U-3 |
| PBJ-1 | PBJ-1H · PBJ-1J |
| XA-38 | XA-38 |
| Bombers | |
| A-26 | A-26C-45 · A-26C-45DT |
| B-18 | B-18A |
| B-24 | B-24D-25-CO · PB4Y-2 · ▄PB4Y-2 |
| B-25 | B-25J-1 · B-25J-20 |
| Hudson | ▄Hudson Mk V |
| PBM-3 | PBM-3 "Mariner" |
| PBY-5 | PBY-5 Catalina · PBY-5A Catalina · ▄Catalina Mk IIIa · ▂PBY-5A Catalina |
| SB2U | SB2U-2 · SB2U-3 |
| SBD-3 | SBD-3 |
| TBD-1 | TBD-1 |
| V-156 | V-156-B1 |
General info
This bomb was manufactured in one of three ways, either cast or spun as one piece, cast as two pieces and welded or cast as three pieces and welded. The nose contained a threaded opening which is closed by the fuze-seat liner and the male plug at the tail is closed by an explosive adapter booster.
The AN-M30A1 is outfitted with two suspension lugs which are directly welded to the bomb casing 14 inches apart. A single suspension lug is welded to the opposite side of the bomb at the centre of gravity which can be utilised to suspend from British aircraft.
This version of the AN-M30 bomb, the A1 version indicates that a modification which locks the base plate to the central filling via two steel pins, preventing the removal of the base plate once the bomb is filled with its explosive material. Once the adapter booster is inserted, a pin is inserted which prevents its withdrawal.
The tail section of the AN-M30A1 bomb is a cast-steel sleeve known as a box-type tail. The Sleeve is manufactured of a cast-steel sleeve with four sheet-steel fins held into place with a locking nut. Each fin is held by a fin-strut which once in place are welded together to make one assembly. Different tail fins were utilised when the low-altitude bombing took place compared to higher altitude bombing.
The AN-M30A1 was painted with a standard colour scheme since 11 March 1942; the body was painted olive drab while yellow stripes were added to indicate the bomb was a HE. To differentiate what type of filler was used, a one-inch yellow band at the nose and tail along with a 1/4 inch dotted band at the centre of gravity of the bomb which indicated it was filled with 50/50 Amatol or TNT fillers. A second yellow band was added to the nose and tail of the bomb if it was filled with Composition"B" which required special handling due to its sensitivity. Standard marking on the bomb body in black paint included type, weight, name of bomb, type of filling, lot number, date and place of filling along with the inspector's initials. Indestructible markings of this information were also stamped into the casing before filling with explosives.
Effective damage
| AN-M30A1 (100 lb) damage table | Metric | Imperial |
|---|---|---|
| Max armor penetration high explosive action | 79 mm | 3.11 in |
| Radius of destruction of armored vehicle | 2.1 m | 6.9 ft |
| Radius of fragment dispersion | 67.3 m | 220.8 ft |
Comparison with analogues
| Comparable bombs to AN-M30A1 (100 lb) | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Name | Mass | Explosive mass | Explosive | Armor Pen. | Destruction radius | Frag radius | |
| ▂ | FAB-50 | 64 kg | 24 kg | TNT | 79 mm | 2.1 m | 68.6 m |
| ▀ | SC50JA | 50 kg | 25 kg | Fp.60/40 | 80 mm | 2.1 m | 70.1 m |
| ▅ | Type 97 Number 6 | 60 kg | 23 kg | TNT | 78 mm | 2.1 m | 67 m |
| ▅ | Type 94 GPHE | 50 kg | 19.6 kg | TNT | 74 mm | 1.8 m | 62.5 m |
| ▄ | GP 50 | 58 kg | 25 kg | TNT | 80 mm | 2.1 m | 70.1 m |
| ▄ | G.A.M.Mn 50 | 50 kg | 28.5 kg | TNT[1]* | 82 mm | 2.4 m | 77.1 m |
| ▄ | D.T. No.2 | 55.7 kg | 19.9 kg | TNT[2]* | 73 mm | 2.1 m | 67.4 m |
| * In-game listing differs from historical record. | |||||||
Usage in battles
Describe situations when you would utilize this bomb in game (vehicle, pillbox, base, etc)
Pros and cons
Summarize and briefly evaluate the weaponry in terms of its characteristics and combat effectiveness. Mark pros and cons as a list.
Pros:
Cons:
History
Examine the history of the creation and combat usage of this weapon. If the historical reference turns out to be too big, take it to a separate article, taking a link to an article about the vehicle and adding a block "/ History" (example: https://wiki.warthunder.com/(weapon-name)/History) and add a link to it here using the main template. Be sure to reference text and sources by using <ref>, as well as adding them at the end of the article.
Media
An excellent addition to the article would be a video guide, as well as screenshots from the game and photos.
See also
Links to the articles on the War Thunder Wiki that you think will be useful for the reader, for example:
- reference to the article about the variant of the cannon/machine gun;
- references to approximate analogues by other nations and research trees.
External links
Paste links to sources and external resources, such as:
- topic on the official game forum;
- encyclopedia page on the weapon;
- other literature.
