Classifications

• • F—MECHANICAL ENGINEERING; LIGHTING; HEATING; WEAPONS; BLASTING
  • F42—AMMUNITION; BLASTING
  • F42B—EXPLOSIVE CHARGES, e.g. FOR BLASTING, FIREWORKS, AMMUNITION
  • F42B12/00—Projectiles, missiles or mines characterised by the warhead, the intended effect, or the material
  • F42B12/02—Projectiles, missiles or mines characterised by the warhead, the intended effect, or the material characterised by the warhead or the intended effect
  • F42B12/04—Projectiles, missiles or mines characterised by the warhead, the intended effect, or the material characterised by the warhead or the intended effect of armour-piercing type
  • F42B12/06—Projectiles, missiles or mines characterised by the warhead, the intended effect, or the material characterised by the warhead or the intended effect of armour-piercing type with hard or heavy core; Kinetic energy penetrators
• • F—MECHANICAL ENGINEERING; LIGHTING; HEATING; WEAPONS; BLASTING
  • F42—AMMUNITION; BLASTING
  • F42B—EXPLOSIVE CHARGES, e.g. FOR BLASTING, FIREWORKS, AMMUNITION
  • F42B12/00—Projectiles, missiles or mines characterised by the warhead, the intended effect, or the material
  • F42B12/02—Projectiles, missiles or mines characterised by the warhead, the intended effect, or the material characterised by the warhead or the intended effect
  • F42B12/04—Projectiles, missiles or mines characterised by the warhead, the intended effect, or the material characterised by the warhead or the intended effect of armour-piercing type
  • F42B12/08—Projectiles, missiles or mines characterised by the warhead, the intended effect, or the material characterised by the warhead or the intended effect of armour-piercing type with armour-piercing caps; with armoured cupola
• • F—MECHANICAL ENGINEERING; LIGHTING; HEATING; WEAPONS; BLASTING
  • F42—AMMUNITION; BLASTING
  • F42B—EXPLOSIVE CHARGES, e.g. FOR BLASTING, FIREWORKS, AMMUNITION
  • F42B12/00—Projectiles, missiles or mines characterised by the warhead, the intended effect, or the material
  • F42B12/02—Projectiles, missiles or mines characterised by the warhead, the intended effect, or the material characterised by the warhead or the intended effect
  • F42B12/36—Projectiles, missiles or mines characterised by the warhead, the intended effect, or the material characterised by the warhead or the intended effect for dispensing materials; for producing chemical or physical reaction; for signalling ; for transmitting information
  • F42B12/44—Projectiles, missiles or mines characterised by the warhead, the intended effect, or the material characterised by the warhead or the intended effect for dispensing materials; for producing chemical or physical reaction; for signalling ; for transmitting information of incendiary type

Definitions

• the present invention relates to a device for penetrating and exploding a target.
• Targets such a rockets, artillery and mortars pose a challenge to conventional lethality approaches to defeating them.
• Conventional means include gun-launched projectiles or warhead fragments. Both of these means rely upon large amounts of kinetic energy to penetrate the target skin with sufficient energy remaining to induce explosion. Propelling a small mass at high speed, increasing the mass of a hypersonic projectile, or a combination of both typically achieves this large amount of kinetic energy. Blast-fragmentation warheads achieve hypervelocity velocities by explosive force on the small projectiles.
• Incendiary materials have been used with projectiles to increase the velocity of penetrating devices by forming a shaped charge or propelling a rod shape forward.
• an incendiary material is used to enhance behind armor damage, but this has been with a hyper-velocity projectile and the incendiary material is packaged within a hollow cylindrical rod.
• the challenge with the blast-fragmentation approach is that it requires complex and sophisticated fuzing to initiate the fragments so that some will be ensured to hit the target.
• the challenge with the conventional approaches is that the high accelerations required for the projectiles to reach the needed hypervelocity speeds are not conducive to sensors and devices needed to guide the projectiles.
• the challenge with guided projectiles is that they reach the target at relatively low supersonic speeds where kinetic energy is low.
• Figure 1 is a stylized, cross-sectional view of a portion of a projectile incorporating one particular embodiment of a device according to the present invention for penetrating and exploding a target;
• Figures 2-4 are flow diagrams depicting various illustrative embodiments of a method for penetrating and exploding a target.
• the invention relates in general to a lethality device packaged within a guided missile to penetrate and cause explosion of a target and more particularly to penetrating the outer skin and subsequently raising the internal temperature and pressure of the internal contents of the target by injecting incendiary material to induce explosion.
• the present invention allows a projectile of relatively moderate speed to defeat these difficult targets such as in-flight mortars. This is accomplished in a two step process.
• the first step is penetrating the target.
• the second step is injecting the incendiary material.
• the first step is accomplished by designing the load path of the host missile or projectile to be transferred to a forward penetrator structure, such as a rod or pin component packaged in the nose of the missile. In this manner, substantially the entire weight of the missile puts pressure on the penetrator structure.
• the mechanism of the defeat is a broaching or puncturing of the outer skin. This is a - A -
• the second step to defeating the target is by injecting incendiary material inside the target shell. This is accomplished by momentum transfer when the incendiary material is packaged between the centrally-located penetrator structure and the outer missile nose.
• the incendiary material (such as thermite) is self igniting and burns at a temperature higher than that required to ignite the internal contents of a target, such as a mortar.
• a projectile 101 includes a penetrator structure 103, such as a rod or pin, disposed in a nose 105 of projectile
• a bulkhead 107 is disposed aft of penetrator structure 103.
• a battery 109 is disposed aft of bulkhead 107.
• An actuation system 1 1 1 for operating a plurality of control surfaces 113 (only one labeled in Figure 1 ) is disposed aft of battery 109.
• a case 1 15 of projectile 101 is disposed aft of actuation system 1 1 1.
• Case 1 15, actuation system 1 1 1 , battery 109, and bulkhead 107 are configured such that, upon impact with a target, loads from case 1 14, actuation system 1 1 1 , battery 109, and bulkhead 107 are transferred to penetrator structure 103. Preferably, such loads are also transferred to nose 105 of projectile 101.
• an incendiary material is injected into the target.
• an incendiary material 1 17 is disposed near penetrator structure 103, such as within a body of projectile 101 about penetrator structure 103 or within a body of projectile 101 and disposed in bulkhead holes.
• penetrator structure 103 progresses into the target, incendiary material 1 17 self-ignites and is injected into the target to explode combustible or explosive material disposed within the target.
• incendiary material 1 17 examples include, but are not limited to, one or more of white phosphorous; mischmetal; an explosive material, such as a cyclotetramethylene-tetranitramine-based substance (Ae., an HMX-based substance), a cyclotrimethylenetrinitramine-based substance (Ae., an RDX-based substance), a pentaerythritol tetranitrate-based substance (Ae., a PETN- based substance), and the like; and a binary mix of fuel and oxidizer, such as thermite and materials containing reactive metals, such as lithium, sodium, potassium, magnesium, calcium, barium, cesium, and the like.
• an explosive material such as a cyclotetramethylene-tetranitramine-based substance (Ae., an HMX-based substance), a cyclotrimethylenetrinitramine-based substance (Ae., an RDX-based substance
• a method of penetrating and exploding a target comprises one of broaching and puncturing an outer skin of the target (block 201 ), self igniting an incendiary material (block 203), injecting the incendiary material into the target (block 205), and igniting a material disposed within the target (block 207).
• one of broaching and puncturing the outer skin of the target is accomplished at least in part by transferring a load from a component of a projectile to a penetrator structure upon impact of the projectile and the target (block 301 ).
• one of broaching and puncturing the outer skin of the target is accomplished by urging a penetrator structure through the outer skin of the target by non-hydrodynamic means.
• the present invention provides significant advantages, including: (1 ) providing a means for penetrating and exploding a target without the use of sophisticated fuzing techniques and (2) providing a means for penetrating and exploding a target without subjecting the projectile to high accelerations, which may impair sensors and/or other devices of the projectile.
• the particular embodiments disclosed above are illustrative only, as the invention may be modified and practiced in different but equivalent manners apparent to those skilled in the art having the benefit of the teachings herein.
• no limitations are intended to the details of construction or design herein shown, other than as described in the claims below. It is therefore evident that the particular embodiments disclosed above may be altered or modified and all such variations are considered within the scope and spirit of the invention.

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• Engineering & Computer Science (AREA)
• Chemical & Material Sciences (AREA)
• Combustion & Propulsion (AREA)
• General Engineering & Computer Science (AREA)
• Aiming, Guidance, Guns With A Light Source, Armor, Camouflage, And Targets (AREA)

Applications Claiming Priority (2)

Publications (1)

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Family Cites Families (15)

• 2007
  • 2007-07-20 EP EP07873856A patent/EP2044384A2/de not_active Withdrawn
  • 2007-07-20 WO PCT/US2007/074001 patent/WO2008105906A2/en active Application Filing
  • 2007-07-20 US US12/374,222 patent/US20090308272A1/en not_active Abandoned

Non-Patent Citations (1)

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