Well, one quick call to PA and I got the “ok” to spill the beans.
(These mission aren’t being flown any more so there is no security concern)
Mr. 2000lb Pelican bomb was on station 6 (right wing) of a F-16C. Our pilot, and another F-16, were holding at over 24,000 feet somewhere above the mountains of eastern Afghanistan. Several thousand feet below them there were two Navy F-18 Hornets that had spotted a concentration of over two-dozen Al-Kade-a bad guys around a cave entrance. They appeared to be downloading what looked to be supplies from a large truck. One of the -18s was “dry” so the other went in hot. He loosed a pair of CBUs full of BLU 97 cluster bombs right on top of one of the larger groups. For those of you who do not know what BLU 97s are… (Enter EOD speel) …97s are foot long cylindrical bomblets that have a dual-purpose warhead and one of the nastiest reputations around. There is a shaped charge effect for penetrating armor, and there is also a Frag sleeve, which surrounds the main charge. The Frag sleeve is lined with zirconium for a secondary incendiary effect. Very, very, very nasty little buggers.
That group of bad guys never even heard them coming… course…they may have wondered what that distant “pop” sound was…little did they know that that “pop” was the sound of linear detonating cord explosively opening the canisters several thousand feet above their head. I’d honestly say they wouldn’t have had much time to contemplate what exactly it was. “Boom.”
Meanwhile, about 500 meters away, there was another group of AK-47 totin’ bad guys who went diving behind one very large pile of boulders as soon as the cluster bombs hit; which I could only imagine, lighted up the valley in series of rapid flashes and ear splitting booms. I was told, from the attack angle of the first F-18, he could not see the second group. Unfortunately for
them the second F-18 holding at a higher altitude
did. He immediately called our friend, Mr. F-16 driver, and wingman, in for assistance.
Number 2 had been dropped earlier in the night, leaving our faithful number 6 on the right wing. Both –16s dropped one J-DAM (ours first incidentally), one right after the other.
Boom. …Boom.
The End.
Yes, I added a bit of a narrative twist, but most of this is straight out of the mouth of the pilot who is from my base back home. Good guy. He got a kick out of the fact that you guys were so eager to know the specifics.