Development of tuneable effects warheads

• Main Authors: Mark Reynolds, William Huntington-Thresher
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: KeAi Communications Co., Ltd. 2016-06-01
• Series: Defence Technology
• Subjects: Tuneable effects; Multiple effects; Blast; Fragmentation; Hydrocode; Modelling; Trial
• Online Access: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2214914716000210

The tuneable effects concept is aimed at achieving selectable blast and fragmentation output, to enable one charge to be used in different scenarios requiring different levels of blast and fragmentation lethality. It is a concept QinetiQ has been developing for an energetic fill consisting of three principal components arranged in co-axial layers, two explosive layers separated by a mitigating but reactive layer. The concept was originally designed to operate in two modes, a low output mode which only detonates the central core of high explosive and a high output mode which detonated both the central core and outer layer of the explosive. Two charge case designs where manufactured and tested; one of these designs showed a reduction in blast and fragment velocities of ~33% and ~20%, respectively, in the low output mode.