
Is it a cluster bomb, illumination flares or something else?
The following video shows a Su-24 Fencer (a Russian Air Force one based on reports) dropping *something* on Aleppo.
Since these shouldn’t be illumination flares that do not burst but burn for a few minutes and whose use in daylight conditions it’s at least weird, the one depicted in the footage appears to be the series of exploding cartridges of a cluster bomb.
Watch by yourself:
In particular, according to some of our readers, these could be submunitions of an RBK-250 or 500 cluster bomb.
Once ejected from the RBK container incendiary ZAB-2.5 fall down burning. In this case, there is only a quick mid-air burst that could be the visual effect of the ignition of the ZAB 2.5Ms rocket: once accelerated by the rocket, the submunitions can penetrate in the ground and then explode (from 0 to several minutes after the impact).
@TheAviationist These are ZAB 2.5M submunitions of RBK-500 CLUSTER BOMBs.
— Babak Taghvaee (@BabakTaghvaee) 4 Ottobre 2015
However, there is no evident sign of impact of the incendiary submunitions with the ground, therefore it could be a cluster bomb for anti-personnel shrapnels or flechettes (or something else, like mines or even leaflets). Any other guess?
@TheAviationist Dropped leaflets? pic.twitter.com/guwd5z0hWh — JB Hilterman (@JB_Hilterman) 4 Ottobre 2015
H/T @JulianRoepcke for discovering this video and @BabakTaghvaee for the analysis
looks like RBK-500 PTAB-1M anti personnel cluster bombs …
http://www.cat-uxo.com/#/rbk-500-ptab-1m-bomb/4583871282
other cluster munition attacks in syria from 2014:
http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=a2b_1440724232
FYI https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Template:Syrian_Civil_War_detailed_map
If memory serves me right, one of the cluster munition packages was capable of deploying dozens of area denial munitions (anti-personnel mines) upon detonation/dispersion. But I’m old and that was a Soviet armament so I could be wrong.
No it looks more like BETAB accelerators to break up concrete. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iFe3JaJVm7E
The man filming the video said “Russian Air Force using new weapons in Syria”. Not conclusive evidence, but still something.