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Mark 83 general-purpose bomb

Grey 1,000 lb bombs stacked on a low trolley on a carrier flight deck, with the sea behind and a deck crewman in a red jersey
Mk 83 bombs on the flight deck of USS Saratoga (CV-60) in 1991.Photo: US Navy. Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons (accessed 2026-10-26).

Drafted — not technically validated

Record revision 1 · The 1,000 lb member of the Mark 80 family, used most by the US Navy and as the warhead of the GBU-16 and GBU-32.

Real-world weapon as described in public sources. Weights and dimensions change with the fins, fuzes and variant fitted; the data plate names the variants its figures describe, and differences are noted beside the number they affect. The record describes the weapon; it is not a guide to employing it.

Mark 83 general-purpose bomb · Mk 83

Type
Low-drag general-purpose bomb, 1,000 lb class [1] [2]
Origin
United States
In service
Since the 1950s [1]; the Mk 80 series first saw combat in Vietnam [5]
Weight
985–1,030 lb (447–467 kg), depending on fuzes and fins [1]
Dimensions
Length about 3 m (118 in) overall; diameter 350 mm (14 in); fin span 480 mm [1]
Warhead or payload
445 lb (202 kg) of tritonal; the PBXN-109-filled version is the BLU-110 [1]
Guidance
None as a free-fall bomb; the warhead of the GBU-16 Paveway IIGBU-16 Paveway II laser-guided bomb OrdnanceThe 1,000 lb Paveway II, dropped almost entirely by self-designating Navy A-6Es in Desert Storm. and GBU-32 JDAMJoint Direct Attack Munition OrdnanceThe GPS/INS tail kit that made ordinary bombs accurate in any weather, and its laser-seeker version for moving targets. [1]
Fuzing
M904 nose and M905 tail fuzesFuze GlossaryWeapons: A device that causes the detonation of an explosive charge at the proper time after certain conditions are met. A bomb fuze is mechanical or electrical, and is classed by what sets it off (impact, mechanical time… [1]; nose and tail fuzesFuze GlossaryWeapons: A device that causes the detonation of an explosive charge at the proper time after certain conditions are met. A bomb fuze is mechanical or electrical, and is classed by what sets it off (impact, mechanical time… may be mechanical or electric [2]
Delivery
Low drag with a conical fin; retarded or unretarded with the MAU-91A/B fin; the BSU-85/B air-inflatable retarder for very low altitude [3] [4]
Carried by
  • Used most by the US Navy, from carrier-based strike fighters such as the F/A-18F/A-18 Hornet AircraftA carrier-capable fighter and attack aircraft that one pilot can switch between roles on the same sortie. [1]
  • F-22A, as a JDAMJoint Direct Attack Munition OrdnanceThe GPS/INS tail kit that made ordinary bombs accurate in any weather, and its laser-seeker version for moving targets. (US Air Force) [1]
  • JF-17 ThunderJF-17 Thunder AircraftA lightweight Pakistani–Chinese multirole fighter powered by the RD-93. (Pakistan Air Force), with a range extension kit [1]
Variants
  • BLU-110: PBXN-109 fill [1]
  • Mk 40 Destructor: the Mk 83 converted to an air-laid mine with the Mk 75 kit [6]

The Navy’s thousand-pounder

The Mk 83 sits in the middle of the Mark 80 family: a 1,000 lb class bomb whose real weight runs from 985 to 1,030 lb with its fuzesFuze GlossaryWeapons: A device that causes the detonation of an explosive charge at the proper time after certain conditions are met. A bomb fuze is mechanical or electrical, and is classed by what sets it off (impact, mechanical time… and fins, built around 445 lb of tritonal. [1] It is the bomb most associated with the US Navy, which uses it more than any other service, and the photographs of it tend to be taken on carrier decks. [1] Like the rest of the series it has the long, slim shape designed to cut drag on fast aircraft, and it did not reach combat until Vietnam. [5]

Slowing a heavy bomb

A low-level attack with a heavy bomb raises the same problem as with a light one, only worse: an unretarded bomb arrives at the target with the aircraft that dropped it. The Navy’s answer for the Mk 83 was a pair of retarding tails. The MAU-91A/B is a four-plate fin that can be dropped closed, as a low-drag bomb, or opened, so the plates catch the air and slow the bomb. [3] [4] The BSU-85/B goes further: it is an air-inflatable retarder for delivery at very low altitude. [4] Either way, the aim is the one the manual gives for all retarded delivery: to give the aircraft time to get clear before the bomb arrives. [4]

A warhead and a mine

Today the Mk 83 is as likely to be the business end of a guided weapon as a free-fall bomb. Filled with insensitive PBXN-109 explosive it becomes the BLU-110, the warhead of the GBU-16 Paveway IIGBU-16 Paveway II laser-guided bomb OrdnanceThe 1,000 lb Paveway II, dropped almost entirely by self-designating Navy A-6Es in Desert Storm. laser-guidedLGW GlossaryWeapons: Laser-guided weapon. A weapon that uses a seeker to detect laser energy reflected from a laser marked/designated target and through signal processing provides guidance commands to a control system, which guides the… bomb and the GBU-32 JDAM, and the Air Force carries it on the F-22A in JDAM form. [1] It also goes to sea in another guise: with the Mk 75 modification kit, the Mk 83 becomes the Mk 40 Destructor, an air-laid mine. [6] Abroad, Pakistan builds guided and range-extended bombs around it; in 2019 two Pakistan Air Force JF-17sJF-17 Thunder AircraftA lightweight Pakistani–Chinese multirole fighter powered by the RD-93. used Mk 83 range-extension-kit bombs against targets in Indian-administered Kashmir. [1]

An F/A-18 Super Hornet banking against a blue sky as a row of bombs falls away from under its wings
An F/A-18 of test squadron VX-23 releases Mk 83 bombs during targeting pod tests, July 2002.Photo: Vernon Pugh, US Navy. Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons (accessed 2026-10-26).

Sources

  1. Mark 83 bomb. Wikipedia (secondary source). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_83_bomb (accessed 2026-10-26).
  2. Aviation Ordnanceman, NAVEDTRA 14313, p. 1-17. US Navy, Naval Education and Training Command; copy hosted by Integrated Publishing. https://navyaviation.tpub.com/14313/css/Aircraft-Bomb-Ammunition-And-Associated-Components-27.htm (accessed 2026-10-26).
  3. Aviation Ordnanceman, NAVEDTRA 14313, p. 1-24. US Navy, Naval Education and Training Command; copy hosted by Integrated Publishing. https://navyaviation.tpub.com/14313/css/Mk-15-And-Mods-Snakeye-Fin-Assembly-34.htm (accessed 2026-10-26).
  4. Aviation Ordnanceman, NAVEDTRA 14313, p. 1-26. US Navy, Naval Education and Training Command; copy hosted by Integrated Publishing. https://navyaviation.tpub.com/14313/css/Bsu-85-B-Air-Inflatable-Retarder-36.htm (accessed 2026-10-26).
  5. General-purpose bomb. Wikipedia (secondary source). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General-purpose_bomb (accessed 2026-10-26).
  6. Aviation Ordnanceman, NAVEDTRA 14313, p. 1-33. US Navy, Naval Education and Training Command; copy hosted by Integrated Publishing. https://navyaviation.tpub.com/14313/css/Antitank-Bomb-Cluster-Mk-20-Cbu-99-And-Cbu-100-43.htm (accessed 2026-10-26).

Wikipedia articles are secondary sources and can change; they are cited with the date they were read. NAVEDTRA training manuals and budget justification exhibits are official US publications, but each describes the weapons in service when it was written.