The Mark 82 is a 500 lb unguided, low-drag general-purpose bomb, part of the United States Mark 80 series. The explosive filling is usually tritonal, though other compositions have sometimes been used.

Development and deployment

With a nominal weight of 500 lb, it is one of the smallest bombs in current service, and one of the most common air-dropped weapons in the world. Although the Mk82's nominal weight is 500 lb, its actual weight varies depending on its configuration, from 510 to 570 lb. It is a streamlined steel casing containing 192 lb of Tritonal high explosive. The Mk82 is offered with a variety of fin kits, fuzes, and retarders for different purposes. The Mk82 is the warhead for the GBU-12 laser-guided bombs and for the GBU-38 JDAM. Currently only the General Dynamics plant in Garland, Texas and Nitro-Chem in Bydgoszcz, Poland are Department of Defense-certified to manufacture bombs for the US Armed Forces. The Mk82 is currently undergoing a minor redesign to allow it to meet the insensitive munitions requirements set by Congress. According to a test report conducted by the United States Navy's Weapon Systems Explosives Safety Review Board established in the wake of the 1967 USS Forrestal fire, the cooking off time for a Mk82 is approximately 2 minutes 30 seconds. More than 4,500 GBU-12/Mk82 laser-guided bombs were dropped on Iraq during the Persian Gulf War. France requested 1,200 Mk82s in 2010 to Société des Ateliers Mécaniques de Pont-sur-Sambre (SAMP) which builds Mk82s under license. Saudi Arabia requested 8,000 Mk82s in 2015, along with guidance kits and other weapons. In August, 2018, a Mark 82 bomb was used for Saudi Arabia's Dahyan air strike in Yemen. Munitions experts confirmed that the numbers on it identified Lockheed Martin as its maker and that this particular Mk82 was a Paveway, a laser-guided bomb. Along with the heavier Mark 84 bombs, Mark 82 bombs were also supplied for the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza. In July 2024, the Biden administration resumed shipments of the 500-pound bombs to Israel, which were halted in May due to concerns about the high number of civilian casualties in Gaza.

Low-level delivery

In low-level bombing, it is possible for the delivering aircraft to sustain damage from the blast and fragmentation effects of its own munitions since the aircraft and ordnance arrive at the target almost simultaneously. To address this issue, the standard Mk82 General-Purpose bomb can be fitted with a special high-drag tail fin unit. In this configuration, it is referred to as the Mk82 Snake Eye. The tail unit has four folded fins that spring open into a cruciform shape when the bomb is released, slowing the bomb by increasing drag, thus allowing the delivery aircraft to safely pass over the target before the bomb hits it.

Variants