Original Item: Only One Available. This is a totally inert, BATF compliant Soviet WWII aerial bomb. It it completely void of any explosive content and is not available for export.

This is the Russian AO-2.5, a high-explosive (HE), anti-personnel (AP), fragmentation submunition was originally manufactured in 1941. The casing is very thick (approx 15mm) and is made of cast iron. The explosive filling was TNT which is approximately 8% of the total weight of the submunition.

The submunition is fitted with the same AM-A direct impact nose fuze as the AO-1SCh HE fragmentation submunitions. The four fins are almost as long as the body and form 45% of the overall submunition length.

The body was originally dark gray with a blue band around the circumference and a green band around the nose. Unfortunately this example appears to have been a battlefield discovery and after being in the ground for many decades, all the original paint is worn away and there is pitting throughout.

This submunition is normally dispensed from the older RBK 250 nose ejection cluster bomb (normally 45 submunitions per cluster bomb). A later version of the AO-2.5M was designed to increase the explosive content to 2.5kgs.

This example still has traces of original manufacturing stamping, we can barely make out the date 1941. The fuze cone is still able to be removed, allowing for the examination of the interior. The total length is approximately 16”.

A lovely example that comes ready to display!

An aerial bomb is a type of explosive or incendiary weapon intended to travel through the air on a predictable trajectory. Engineers usually develop such bombs for dropping from an aircraft. The use of aerial bombs is termed aerial bombing.

Aerial bombs include a vast range and complexity of designs. These include unguided gravity bombs, guided bombs, bombs hand-tossed from a vehicle, bombs needing a large specially-built delivery-vehicle; bombs integrated with the vehicle itself (such as a glide bomb), instant-detonation bombs or delay-action bombs.

As with other types of explosive weapons, aerial bombs aim to kill and injure people or to destroy materiel through the projection of one or more of blast, fragmentation, radiation or fire outwards from the point of detonation.