The M117 is an air-dropped demolition bomb used by United States military forces. The weapon dates back to the Korean War of the early 1950s. Although it has a nominal weight of its actual weight, depending on fuze and retardation options, can be around . The bomb's explosive content is typically of Tritonal or of Minol in the case of the M117A1E2 due to their higher density and detonation velocity compared to TNT. Demolition bombs rely on time delayed fuzes which allow the bomb to burrow into a building or other structure before detonating. The M117 can be configured with a conical low-drag tail for medium and high altitude deliveries or a high-drag tail fin for low-altitude drops, delaying the bombs hitting their targets ensuring fighters are out of the blast zone before detonation. The M117 was the basis for the BOLT-117, the world's first Laser-guided bomb. History From the 1950s through the early 1970s the M117 was a standard aircraft weapon, carried by the F-100 Super Sabre, F-104 Starfighter, F-105 Thunderchief, B-57 Canberra, F-111, F-5, A-1 Skyraider, A-4 Skyhawk and F-4 Phantom. The M117 series was used extensively during the Vietnam War, and B-52G Stratofortress aircraft dropped 44,600 M117 and M117R bombs during Operation Desert Storm. The B-52 Stratofortress was the last aircraft to use the bomb; tactical aircraft had mostly switched to using the Mark 80-series bombs, particularly the Mark 82 () or Mark 84 () bombs and their guided equivalents. On 26 June 2015, the last Mk 117 in PACAF inventory was dropped by a B-52H crew on an island near Andersen AFB, Guam. Variants M117A1 The M117A1 is essentially the same bomb as the M117 with the exception of the following components which have been removed: center lug, two spring washers utilized to hold the electrical fuzes in the nose and base and a ring receptacle lock utilized in the electrical fuze cable assembly. M117A1E1 M117A1E2 The M117A1E2 is identical to the M117A1 with the exception that the explosive filler Minol II() is used instead of Tritonal. Minol II was used in an effort to offset the shortages of TNT in the late 1960s, however, problems developed during the storage of M117 bombs filled with Minol II, especially in hot, tropical areas which caused the explosive filler to expand and ooze or extrude through the joints of the bomb. While determined safe to handle, the extruded