Weapons: China Develops Thermobaric H Bomb

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July 14, 2025: China recently tested a 2 kg thermobaric explosive device. This weapon created a 1,000 degree Celsius fireball that lasted two seconds. This was fifteen times longer than any current conventional explosive. Normally, this effect can only be produced by a nuclear weapon. China used a solid-state hydrogen storage material composed of magnesium. There were no reports of how China would use this new weapon, but they will eventually weaponize it in one way or another.

Thermobaric explosions are created by fuel-air explosive devices. This effect was discovered in 1785 when an Italian bakery suffered the first known dust explosion. Modern fuel-air weapons duplicate this effect by putting a cloud of fuel into the air and then detonating it. This produces an overpressure and fire, removing all the oxygen from the area and killing anyone in the target zone. The US used such weapons in Vietnam to create landing zones and to destroy cave and bunker complexes; and subsequently used them in Afghanistan.

Russia uses thermobaric weapons in both large and small forms. The small rocket-propelled systems are often mis-translated as flamethrower units. The Russian Shmel launcher delivers a 2.1kg bomb to a range of 1,000 meters; the warhead causes a 50-meter fireball that reaches temperatures of over 1,000 degrees Celsius. The Russians also use the TOS-1, which is a 30-barrel 220mm rocket launcher on a tank chassis. With a range of 400-3500 meters, it can create a devastated zone of 200x400 meters. The Russians also have the ODAB-500PM aircraft bomb, the KAB-500Kr-OD TV-guided bomb, and the ODS-OD BLU dispenser which scatters a cluster of fuel-air bombs. The Smerch has twelve 300mm rocket tubes on a mobile launcher. The Uragan has sixteen 220mm rocket tubes on a mobile launcher. The Shturm anti-tank missile has a fuel-air warhead, as does the ATAA anti-tank missile. The S8D 80mm fuel-air rocket was used by aircraft, as was the S13D 122mm fuel-air rocket. The Kornet-E long-range anti-tank missile can use a thermobaric warhead.

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