A daisy cutter fuse is designed to detonate a bomb at a stand-off distance above the ground in order to maximise the blast effect. This is achieved by mounting an impact fuse upon a long probe affixed to the bomb's nose. When this probe contacts the ground the bomb is detonated.

Daisy cutter fuses were first used by the United States during the Vietnam War. The concept for the fuse is attributed to an Air America employee who grasped the idea during a night of drinking. Shortly thereafter, his drinking buddy, a Royal Lao Air Force airman at Louang Phrabang, gathered the needed materials for the prototype and started welding used aircraft gun barrels directly into the nose fuse cavity of bombs.

When used gun barrels were in short supply, water pipes were requisitioned for the task. The welded pipe versions had several adverse effects, such as vibration, pipe weld separation / breakage while in flight and wind drag due to the barrels not being capable of being aligned perfectly, so that phase of development eventually gave way to threaded steel water pipes screwed into the nose cavity of the bombs, leaving only the tail fuse for detonation.