Warplanes: December 26, 2001

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The Afghan War has seen the first combat use of the new Wind Corrected Munitions Dispenser. Dropped from 40,000 feet, this weapon can deliver 202 BLU-97B bomblets over the target area with an accuracy (for the center of the blast zone) of 16 feet. Several types of submunitions are available, including anti-tank, land mine, carbon-fiber (to short out power grids), and flechette (to puncture chemical weapons plants, leaving sunlight and air to destroy the leaking chemical weapons).--Stephen V Cole