Tel Aviv: The Turkish defence industries continue to develop advanced weapon systems. Recently Turkey has publicly unveiled the GAZAP bomb, described by state-linked and international media as its “most powerful” non-nuclear and air-launched weapon and one of the world’s most destructive conventional bombs to date.
The GAZAP is a 970 kg thermobaric bomb, also colloquially known as a vacuum bomb, showcased at IDEF 2025 in Istanbul by Turkey’s National Defence Ministry. Experts explain that the new bomb belongs to what is dubbed Thermobaric weapons.
These weapons work by dispersing a fuel-air explosive mixture that, upon detonation, creates an intense overpressure and high temperatures, using oxygen from the surrounding air, making them far more destructive than traditional explosives of similar weight. Temperatures inside the blast can reach up to 3,000°C, with a kill zone extending close to a 1km radius.
According to the experts such a bomb can penetrate up to 90 metre of rock and earth when used as a deep-penetration or bunker-buster munition. The effects of thermobaric/vacuum bombs are controversial because they can produce blasts that last long enough to destroy structures and can cause serious internal injuries to people who are not in the direct blast radius through pressure changes (brain damage, collapsed lungs) and inhaling the hot cloud. The main use of such a bomb is for destroying fortified military sites and tunnels.
-The writer is an Israel-based freelance journalist. The views expressed are of the writer and do not necessarily reflect the views of Raksha Anirveda
