[Icybee]

I found out a few weeks ago they made a bunch of those bombs, minus the nuclear elements, for training. They even dropped some on Japanese targets and found they were fairly effective just from the explosive content.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pumpkin_bomb

[mendort]

They cost between 13k and 26k a piece in 2014 USD. That is truly amazing.

EDIT:

Even more amazing when you consider that they weighed about 10k pounds.

[jonknee]

It's amazing/depressing how cheap bombs are when they don't have to be smart.

[mendort]

huh.. you're right. I assumed that anything the military bought these days came with a 1/4 million dollar price tag, but the Mark 84 bomb is only about twice the price per lb of the pumpkin bombs.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_84_bomb

[bd_at_rivenhill]

Actually, it's amazing how much they charge for bombs that are smart.

[hollerith]

Actually, most smart bombs (JDAMs) are just old, dumb bombs with a new "tail kit" containing a GPS and guidance electronics.

[mendort]

A tail kit that costs almost 10 times as much as the bomb.

[hollerith]

OK.

(La Wik says the US Air Force is currently paying $27,000 per tail kit.)

[samplonius]

Hey, this is Hackernews, not Reddit. You can't just completely make shit up here.

[eplanit]

Why "depressing" that a device with little complexity costs less than one with much (smart implies much) complexity?