Fuel Air Bomb

"The economical alternative to a nuke"

- Merchant of Menace store caption

The Fuel Air Bomb is an air delivered thermobaric bomb featured in Mercenaries: Playground of Destruction and Mercenaries 2: World in Flames.

Mercenaries: Playground of Destruction


"The fuel-air canister disperses a fine cloud of volatile fuel over a wide area that, went ignited, produces a massive shockwave."

- Merchant of Menace store description

Overview
The Fuel Air Bomb is an extremely powerful air strike that can destroy any and all personnel, vehicles and unhardened structures in its large blast radius. It does this via the massive and long-duration blast wave caused by the thermobaric reaction.

It is comparable to the Bunker Buster Bomb and the Cruise Missile Strike in terms of destructive power, but is incapable of destroying large, hardened bunkers.

Tactics
The Fuel Air Bombs extremely damaging firepower coupled with its accuracy and out-of-line-of-sight targeting via satellite make it one of the more power effective and expensive methods of destroying mass enemy forces. Collateral damage is likely to occur when using this weapon near civilian occupied areas.

Its biggest disadvantage is its cost, which at $360,000 makes it the second most expensive air strike offered at the Merchant of Menace store.

Its biggest advantage, however, is that it arrives faster than any other strike, eliminating threats quickly.

Specifications

 * Unlocked by: Complete 'Chain Reaction'
 * Cost: $360,000
 * Guidance: Satellite
 * Delivery: Sukhoi Su-25 'Frogfoot'

Mercenaries 2: World in Flames
"Dual-stage firebomb destroys light fortifications. Very effective against personnel and light vehicles"

- Stockpile caption



Overview
The Fuel Air Bomb is very devastating air strike with a large area of effect with the ability to destroy most unhardened structures, save the Head Quarters of Universal Petroleum. The Fuel Air Bomb is likely at least three times more powerful than the Chinese Fuel Air RPG.

This air strike is not particularly expensive but it requires an incredibly high amount of fuel to deploy. Fuel Air Bomb munitions can rarely be found in Cumana or near Chinese High Value Targets. Fuel Air Bombs look identical to Cluster Bomb munitions.

Tactics
The Fuel Air Bomb is an excellent choice for destroying vehicles and killing infantry within a wide area. The blast has little effect against hardened structures like bunkers.

Due to the high cost of fuel to deploy, players should use this air strike sparingly; else they have no fuel left to call in other air strikes or transportation until more fuel to found.

Specifications

 * Unlocked by: Unknown
 * Cost: $350,000 at the Chinese Shop
 * Guidance: Smoke Grenade
 * Fuel: 900 gallons
 * Delivery: Mikoyan MiG-27 'Flogger-D/J'

Real life
The Fuel Air Bomb is based on any large, air-delivered thermobaric bomb. Real life therbobaric bombs include the Russian Father of all Bombs and the United States Army's CBU-55 and CBU-72 fuel-air cluster bombs.