33 - Special Warheads and Underwater Weapons Flashcards
Continuous Rod
Rod “fragments” used to inflict damage on aircraft
- AIM-7F Sparrow
- AIM-9D Sidewinder
Utilize “cutting” action
Armor Piercing Warheads
Requires large amounts of energy in order to penetrate & cause damage
- Two Types
-Kinetic Energy Penetrator
-Shaped Charge
Kinetic Energy Penetrator (SABOT round)
Armer Piercing Warhead
Travels at extremely high velocity to penetrate target. Uses a fin-stablized penetrator to infiltrrate target
Personnel are killed via pressure and thermal effects
Shaped Charge (HEAT)
Armor Piercing Warhead
Uses geometric designs to blast malleable metal into armor
- Projectile also known as Shaped Charge Jet (SCJ)
Fuel Air Explosives (FAE)
- Primary detonation: disperses flammable aerosol
- Secondary detonation: igniting aerosol
- Lower peak overpressure, longer duration
Thermal Warheads
Used to start fires
Napalm, kerosene, thermite
Pyrotechnics
Used for signaling, illumination and marking
Hard Target Penetrator
“Bunker Buster”
Able to penetrate deep layers of earth to get into military structures
Has special fuzes and super hardened casing
Antipersonnel Warheads
Primarily used to kill or maim personnel
- Flechette, beehive rounds
Cluster Bomb Units (CBU)
Delivers dozens up to hundreds of “bomblets” in wide, indiscriminate patterns
Has a “wide-area effect”
Cluster Bomb Units (CBU)
Delivers dozens up to hundreds of “bomblets” in wide, indiscriminate patterns
Has a “wide-area effect”
Psychological
Non-lethal warheads that carry leaflets to persuade local populations
Types of Underwater Explosions
- Surface Target
- Submerged Target
Torpedoes and Mines
Kill chain of an underwater explosion for ships
- Warhead detonates beneath hull
- Steam bubble expands and lifts hull, which weakens keel
- Steam bubble collapses and the keel breaks as the ship falls into the void
Kill chain of an underwater explosion for subs
- Warhead detonates near the hull
- Creates a steam bubble which overshoots equilibrium, leading to compression by the ambient water pressure
- Steam bubbles attach to the hull and collapses under the pressure of the surrounding water
- During collapse, compression heats the bubble
Hull breah = Likely destruction
