“Unveiling the Secrets: How Innovations in Technology are Redefining the Future of Precision Weaponry”
The AZON was first deployed in November 1944 by Consolidated B-24 Liberator bombers the 493rd Bomb Squadron based an Pandaveswar Airfield in India. Over the next nine months, the 493rd succeeded in destroying 41 bridges in Burma and Thailand – including the famous Bridge on the River Kwai – using 1,357 bombs, achieving a hit rate of around 12%. Perhaps the greatest testament to the AZONâs effectiveness came on December 28, 1944 when the 493rd used just 9 AZONs to demolish the rail bridge at Pyinmana, Burma, which had withstood bombardment by thousand of conventional munitions over the previous two months.
The AZON was also used in the European Theatre by the 458th Bombardment Group based at RAF Horsham St Faith in England. Between June 8 and September 13, 1944, the 458th carried out 9 AZON missions against railway bridges and oil refineries in France, the Netherlands, and Germany – though with considerably less success. Unlike in Burma, bombers over Europe had to contend with intense antiaircraft fire and fighter attacks, which often forced them to break off from their steady courses and interrupt the bombardierâs view of the target and weapon. A more advanced version of the AZON called VB-4 or RAZON – Range and AZimuth Only – which used a 2,000-pound bomb and allowed for pitch control – was in development since 1942, but entered service too late to see combat. After the war, an even more powerful 12,000-pound version called the VB-13 or ASM-A-1 Tarzon – effectively a British Tallboy âbunker busterâ bomb fitted with a radio controlled tail unit – was developed and briefly used in the Korean War before being retired in 1951 – and for more on these enormous weapons, please check out our previous video That Time Disney Helped Give the World a Weapon of Mass Destruction. But while the AZON played a relatively minor role in the Second World War, it pioneered a technique still used today in weapons like the Joint Direct Attack Munition and Paveway, in which regular âdumb bombsâ are converted into precision guidance munition by fitting them with a standardized tail unit or seeker head.
