# Inert Bombs -- What's with that?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inert-bombs-whats-with-that/159529
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [March 6, 2003, 5:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inert-bombs-whats-with-that/159529 "2003-03-06T17:40:48Z")
**Posts on this page:** 4
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@stuyguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/stuyguy)
#### Post date: [March 6, 2003, 5:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inert-bombs-whats-with-that/159529/1 "2003-03-06T17:40:48Z")
I’m watching CNN. An expert is describing the bombs in the US’s arsenal. Among them are “inert bombs.” These bombs, he explains, are used to keep collateral damage – civilian casualties, I assume – low. (Well, I’m thinking, if you don’t drop the thing in the first place it will keep CD even lower!)
But seriously, what exactly are these things? My guess is that they’re all boom and smoke with little or no ouch; they alert the people at the target site that they’re being bombed without actually killing them – yet. If they don’t hightail it out of there soon the next one is gonna hurt. Am I right?
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### Author:  [@Ethilrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ethilrist)
#### Post date: [March 6, 2003, 5:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inert-bombs-whats-with-that/159529/2 "2003-03-06T17:49:25Z")
Three main types.
1. I-beam with a guidance system. Drop it from altitude at speed and it’ll penetrate a bunker.
2. Trident: 3 smaller hunks of metal with one guidance system that separate a given altitude so they hit the roof of the building a reasonable distance apart, maximizing damage to the specific buildnig.
3. Darts. Think lawn darts. Anti-personnel or anti-small-vehicle.
Basically, we’re throwing rocks rather than bombs. People can still get hurt, but if we hit what we’re aiming at, somebody across the street won’t even get knocked down by the impace.
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### Author:  [@Padeye](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Padeye)
#### Post date: [March 6, 2003, 5:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inert-bombs-whats-with-that/159529/3 "2003-03-06T17:50:05Z")
Found this on Google. [http://www.angelfire.com/art/enchanter/Inert\_bombs.html](http://www.angelfire.com/art/enchanter/Inert_bombs.html)
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### Author:  [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)
#### Post date: [March 6, 2003, 5:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inert-bombs-whats-with-that/159529/4 "2003-03-06T17:51:44Z")
Ha. No.
They are bomb-shape blocks of purest concrete. Yes, concrete.
Attach a smart-bomb kit to one, & you can drop it on a piece of military hardware stashed in a civilian neighborhood without reducing the local kiddies to sausage-stuffings.
And why not? A 4-ton block of concrete, dropped from a plane going 500 mph, at 50,000, is gonna make a real big ouchie on anything it hits. Even a tank.