Weight 5,000 kg (11,000 lb)
Filling TNT,
RDX and
aluminium powder
Filling weight 3,200 kg (7,100 lb)
The Directorate of Logistics of the Air Forces eventually requested to Gelperin the development of a five-ton bomb, capable of being dropped by the
Pe-8, the heaviest Soviet bomber of the time.
[2] The definitive version of the FAB-5000 was fitted with six contact lateral fuses, and the warhead was filled with 3,200 kg (7,100 lb) of an explosive mixture of
TNT,
RDX, and
aluminium powder. The number of fuses ensured that the force of the blast would disperse laterally, which increases the damage in areas such as industrial compounds and military facilities.
[3] In order to load the device, the bomb bay doors had to remain half-open. The tests, however, were successful.
[2] Two bombs were dropped, one from an altitude of 4,000 m and the other from 3,300 m. The first bomb fell in open ground, leaving a crater 6 metres (20 ft) in diameter and 3 metres (9.8 ft) in depth. Grass in a radius of 150 m was charred. The second bomb landed in the woods, and left a crater of 8 metres (26 ft) in diameter and 3 metres (9.8 ft) in depth. Some 600 trees were torn out within a 70 m radius, while 30 percent of the trees within 135 m also fell down. Later tests produced craters up to 20 metres (66 ft) in diameter and 9 metres (30 ft) in depth.
[3]
The first combat use of the FAB-5000 took place on the night of 28 April 1943, when coastal fortifications at
Königsberg were hit.
[2] The Pe-8 bomber that launched the bomb from an altitude of 5,800 m was shaken by the shockwave of the explosion.[3] On 19 July 1943, during the
battle of Kursk, two Pe-8 dropped two bombs on a railroad yard near
Orel,
[3] ripping apart a 100 m section of the railway and obliterating dozens of
railcarsand German military vehicles.
[2] Railroads and fuel depots had already been hit around Orel with one bomb on 4 June and with two bombs on 3 July. Two attacks were carried out on advancing German troops on 12 July, but further tactical use was suspended to avoid the risk of
friendly fire.
[3] Soviet sources also claim that two buildings occupied by the
Gestapo and the
Belarusian Auxiliary Police were demolished by two FAB-5000 bombs at the city of
Mogilev,
Belarus,
[4] apparently on 26 May 1943. On 7 February 1944, another two FAB-5000 bombs were dropped on
Helsinki, in the course of the
1944 Great Raids.[3] The city's
tram terminal and the train station were destroyed.
[5] A couple of days later, two more bombs fell on
Finland's capital.
The last FAB-5000 was dropped on the railway station of Brailiv (Wikidata), Ukraine, on 9 March 1944, during the Soviet offensive on Kamenets-Podolsky pocket, halting all railroad traffic for several days.[3]