Mark 84 bomb

[ekrem]

.... Mark 84 is an American general-purpose bomb (...) entering service during the Vietnam War, it was nicknamed "Hammer" for its considerable power.

Mark 84 bomb - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

USA has dropped 12.000 of these bombs during Desert Storm.
So to speak a general and cheap "workhorse" to do the job.

During Desert Storm the MK-80 series of bombs were dropped from literally every fixed-wing aircraft that supported the ground offensive.

MK84 - Dumb Bombs


Production cost of Mk84 bomb is 3,100 $.
USA has JDAM upgrade-kit for these dumb-bombs. Each upgrade-kit for Mk84 bomb costs 70,000 $.
The JDAM upgrade-kit transforms Mk84 in a precision bomb with an accuracy of 8-10 meters, and it can be thrown in all kind of weather conditions.


The JDAM upgrade-kit is currently for USA Army in full-rate production till 2014.
US Army will procure 240,000 upgrade-kits.
So why is this relevant? Wikipedia article gives a hint in comparing the costs of a Tomahawk cruise-missile and the JDAM upgrade-kit.

the newest Tomahawk cruise missile, dubbed the Tactical Tomahawk, costs nearly $730,000 a piece.

Joint Direct Attack Munition - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

With the JDAM kit you can make the Mk84 (the most powerful in Mk80 class) an equivalent to a Tomahawk for total cost of 73,000 $.
So there is a price advantage of 1:10 against a Tomahawk.


Turkey is also customer of JDAM upgrade-kit for Mk84 bomb.
But we developed our own indigenious upgrade-kit, called HGK.
If you use HGK with INS and GPS accuracy is at 10 Meters CEP.
If you use it without GPS then 25 meters accuracy.

LINK: Turkish JDAM-class weapons: Expanded threat for Greek air defenses : Warfare Sims

From perspective of Greeks from above link. (Because Greece, as they are the only neighbour with world-class air-defence systems of US Patriot, Russian S-300 and Tor-1):

Combined with the ongoing acquisition of long-range precision weapons (Popeye, SLAM-ER, JSOW, Harpy) which pose a critical threat to Greek LR-SAM systems and primary C4I nodes, as well as the projected procurement of advanced strike-optimized aircraft (F-35), the overall threat of massive neutralization of Greek air defenses by a concentrated THK offensive is rapidly expanding.

Of course Mk84 itself is being produced in Turkey also.
Produced in Kirikkale Ammunition Factory in Turkey by MKEK
MKEK - PRODUCT DETAILS


You can see Mk84 with HGK upgrade being thrown by a Turkish F-4E 2020 Terminator
[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rhlEr47hzKI]YouTube - Tubitak Hassas Güdüm Kiti- HGSS JDAM[/ame]

 

[ekrem]

The F-4's can carry more weapons then a F-16.
F-16 can carry 4 Mk84, F-4 can carry 5 Mk84.

F-4E-2020 Terminator refers to a structure, avionics and electronics upgrade of F-4 made in cooperation with Israel in the year 2000.
F-4 Phantom II non-U.S. operators - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

In theory, current F-4s operate behind F-16.
In future they will operate behind F-35 and F-16, but will be good enough to still throw bombs.
116 F-35
240 F-16 CCIP
195 F-4's each 5 Mk84 = 975 Mk84 in one take-off operation. That is over 2 million pounds of very cheap fire-and-forget precision explosives.

So F-4's are our bombers, and we will operate them till 2020.


Not only did Turkey refuse to sign Oslo Process for Cluster Munitions in 2007, we introduced our Cluster Bomb called "Demet", it has steel balls in it.
Here a mini model version of it:
http://1.1.1.2/bmi/www.resimbank.org/image-B804_49FD93D9.jpg
It is for F-4.