GB2433105A

GB2433105A - Tandem warhead

Info

Publication number: GB2433105A
Application number: GB9711774A
Authority: GB
Inventors: Manfred Schildknecht; Manfred Klare; Michael Hahn; Klaus Lindstadt
Original assignee: Diehl Stiftung and Co KG; Diehl GmbH and Co
Current assignee: Diehl Stiftung and Co KG; Diehl Verwaltungs Stiftung
Priority date: 1996-08-26
Filing date: 1997-06-09
Publication date: 2007-06-13
Anticipated expiration: 2017-06-09
Also published as: FR2890735A1; DE19634457B3; GB2433105B; GB9711774D0

Abstract

Both hard targets with and without reactive armour as well as barricades and lightly armoured and/or unarmoured vehicles can be attacked with a tandem warhead. To this end, the warhead (1) has a jet-forming main charge (5), a fragmentation projectile (13) which can be accelerated because of its inertia, and a front shaped charge (31) which can be extended from a front casing section (25) of the warhead (1). When the front shaped charge (31) is extended, hard targets with and without reactive armour can be attacked. When the front shaped charge (31) is retracted and is located in the casing section (25), barricades and lightly armoured and/or unarmoured vehicles can be attacked. In this position a body (41) and a bellows (61) attached to the rear of a telescopic tube (33) rest on the lining (6) of the main charge (5).

Description

Tandem warhead for ballistic uBe or rocket-powered for attacking

barricades and roads and heavily armoured targets The invention relates to a tandem warhead for ballistic use or rocket-powered f or attacking barricades and roads and heavily armoured targets according to the precharacterizing clause of Claim 1.

EP 0 583 642 Bi discloses a warhead having a tandem charge for attacking barricades. The ballistically flying warhead has a main charge which forms a main charge jet when it strikes the barricade, which main charge jet produces a penetration channel in the barri-cade for a secondary projectile which is accelerated because of the inertia. The secondary projectile passes through this channel and produces fragments behind the barricade.

This warhead is ineffective against armoured targets.

The invention is based on the object of designing the known warhead for attacking barricades such that it is also able to attack hard targets with and without reactive armour.

The invention achieves this object on the basis of the characterizing features of Claim 1.

Advantageous developments of the invention can be found in the subclaims.

According to the invention, both hard targets with and without reactive armour as well as light and/or ünarmoured targets and barricades can be attacked successfully with one and the same warhead.

Front shaped charges for attacking hard targets with and without reactive armour have likewise been disclosed, in DE 38 04 992 Cl, as control bodies for shaped charges in order to increase their effectiveness.

To this end, US 4,359,943 discloses a thin-walled control body, roughly in the form of a pot, with a through-opening. However, only a single generic type of target can be attacked with the known solutions.

The improvement in the performance of the main io charge by the control body and control bellows and the front shaped charge mounted in a spacer tube makes it possible, on the one hand, to attack hard targets with and without reactive armour successfully. On the other hand, it is surprising that these components do not adversely affect the possibility of attacking lightly armoured and/or unarmoured vehicles and of attacking protected targets, such as barricades. This is because the disturbing effect of the control body and the control bellows enlarges the crater diameter for the fragmen-tation projectile to pass through. In the transportation position and in the inactive position within the casing of the warhead, the said components produce the desired disturbance of the jet formation of the main charge. In consequence, although the shaped charge performance in terms of crater depth is reduced, the crater diameter is, however, enlarged such that the secondary charge, in the form of a fragmentation projectile, passes directly through the crater.

An exemplary embodiment of the invention is illustrated in the drawing, in which: Fig. 1 shows a warhead for attacking heavily armoured targets, Fig. 2 shows the warhead according to Fig. 1 for attack- ing lightly armoured targets and protected tar-gets, such as barricades, and Fig. 3 shows a detail III from Fig. 2.

In a casing 3, a warhead 1 has a two-stage charge 4 for barricades, walls and the like. This charge con-sists of a jet-forming main charge 5 with a lining 6, explosive 7 and a fuze 8, and of a fragmentation projectile 13 which is arranged coaxially at a distance 11 and has a fuze 15. A tube section 17 of a casing part 19 holds the fragmentation projectile 13. Explosion gas and smoke protection is designated 21.

The main charge 5 with the fuze 8 is arranged in a further casing part 23. The two casing parts 19, 23 and a casing section 25 in the form of a cap are connected to one another by attachment means 26, 27.

A jet-forming front shaped charge 31 with a fuze 32 extends the range of targets of the warhead 1. The front shaped charge 31 is seated firmly in a displaceable and telescopic spacer tube 33 and is covered and held on the target side by a solid impact body 35 made of steel.

The spacer tube 33 is in two parts. A tube 39, which is mounted displaceably at 37 in the casing section 25, can be screwed in by a thread 38 and has a control body 41 attached to it holds a charge tube 40 which can be screwed in and can likewise be displaced against stops 43 to 45. The tubes 39, 40 are fixed by friction contact in the retracted position, see Fig. 2, at 37 by means of two sealing rings 34 made of rubber.

The control body 41 and a control bellows 61 consist of a high-density plastic, such as polyamide or rubber. The control body 41 may also be composed of metal or of plastic with embedded metal powder particles.

A through-hole 60 in the control body 41 consists of a cylindrical hole 62 and of a conical hole 63. A steel plate 64 is used to close the cylindrical hole 63 on the target side. The control body 41 has a collar 65 with a surface 66 and a cone 67 and can thus be placed alternatively in a positively locking manner against a ring 68 of the casing section 25 or, via the interposed control bellows 61, against the lining 6.

The control bellows 61 bridges the intermediate space 72 between the lining 6 and the control body 41 in the form of a funnel, see Fig. 1. The control bellows 61 is screwed to the casing section 25 at 26, and is attached to the control body 41 in a groove 76, for example by bonding or by positive locking.

Attacking hard targets with and without reactive armour is carried out by the front shaped charge 31 and the main charge 5 with the spacer tube 33 extended and screwed in at 38 and 46, see Fig. 1. The important factor is that the structure-borne sound is carried without interruption from the impact body 35 to the fuzes 8, 15, 32, this being ensured, inter alia, by the screw unions 38, 46. On striking the target, the front shaped charge 31 detonates. Its shaped charge jet penetrates the impact body 35 and produces an initial hole in the hard target and/or detonates a reactive armour. The main charge 5 detonates with a certain delay and the performance of its shaped charge jet is increased by the control bellows 61 and the control body 41. The shaped charge jet penetrates the steel plate 64 and successfully attacks the target.

The fragmentation projectile 13 does not penetrate into the target. It detonates outside the target.

When attacking lightly armoured and/or unarmoured vehicles and when attacking protected targets, such as barricades, the shaped charge function of the main charge is deliberately, that is to say intentionally, dis-turbed in that the spacer tube 33 is not extended during firing, see Fig. 2. The control bellows 61 rests via a conical section 9 on the lining 6 and thus covers up to about 70 of the free conical inner surface of the lining 6. The remaining, central conical section is designated 10. The shaped charge jet is thus formed only by the lining 6 in accordance with the conical section 10. This disturbance, corresponding to the covered conical section 9 or disturbance zone, results in a reduction in the shaped charge performance in terms of the crater depth and, at the same time, a desired enlargement of the crater diameter.

These deliberate effects make it possible for the fragmentation projectile 13 to penetrate into the interior of the target.

The disturbance is produced by the parts that are located close to the covering of the main charge 5, such as the fuze 32, the tube 39, the control body 41 and the control bellows 61.

On impact, the front shaped charge 31 detonates first, and then the main charge 5, with a slight time delay. The jet from the front shaped charge 31 has a certain primary effect in the target. In this case, the steel plate 64 prevents parts of the fuze 32 penetrating into the region of the lining 6. The described disturbance of the jet formation from the main charge 5 results in a relatively broad shaped charge jet being produced, which produces a correspondingly large hole through the target for the subsequent fragmentation projectile 13, which is accelerated because of its inertia. The fragmentation projectile 13 passes through the through-hole and detonates behind the target or in the interior of the target.

In the case of a warhead which is fired from a hand-held or shoulder-fired weapon, the gunner expediently either extends the spacer tube 33 by a screwing operation, or leaves it alone.

In the case of a heavy munition fired from combat vehicles, the extension of the tube 33 or leaving it alone is carried out by a suitable, preferably elec-trical, pulse directly by the act of firing or by the launch pulse.

The three autonomous fuzes 8, 15, 32 described can be replaced by a central fuze pulse transmitter which is armed and made safe electronically 80 (Fig. 1) using EFI detonators which are known per se and are allocated to the main charge 5, to the fragmentation projectile 13 and to the front shaped charge 31.

Claims

Patent Claims 1. Tandem warhead for ballistic use or rocket-powered for

attacking barricades and roads and heavily armoured targets, having a spacer tube (33) , a jet-forming main charge (5) and a reduced-calibre secondary charge in the form of a fragmentation projectile (13) which can be accelerated, corresponding to its inertia, because of its inertia on impact of the warhead (1), characterized in that the casing section (25) which covers the main charge (5) on the target side holds the spacer tube (33) displaceably (37) the spacer tube (33) has, on the target side, a solid impact body (35) and, arranged after it, a jet-forming front shaped charge (31) as well as a control body (41), which is attached to the foot of the spacer tube (33) and has a through-hole (62, 63), and a control bellows (61) for the shaped charge jet to be formed, the control bellows (61) and the control body (41) rest on the lining (6) of the main charge (5) when the spacer tube (33) is retracted, but the control body (41) rests on the front end (ring 68) of the casing section (25) when the spacer tube (33) is extended, and the control bellows (61) bridges the intermediate space (72) between the lining (6) and the control body (41) in the form of a funnel.

2. Tandem warhead according to Claim 1, characterized in that the spacer tube (33) is telescopic, the spacer tube (33) consists of a tail-end tube (39) of larger diameter and having the control body (41) attached at the tail end, and of a target-side charge tube (40), of smaller diameter, for accommodating the front shaped charge (40) with the fuze (32) and the tubes (39, 40) can be fixed by stops (43 to 45) and by fixing devices (rubber rings 34, threads 38, 46) both in the retracted position of the tube (33) and in the extended position of the tube (33) 3. Tandem warhead according to Claim 1, characterized in that each charge (5, 31, 13) has a fuze (8, 32, 15) or, in the warhead (1) , a central fuze pulse transmitter (80) is assigned to detonating the secondary fuzes assigned to the charges (5, 31, 13), the secondary fuzes being equipped with corresponding time delays from 0.5 ms to 10 ms.

4. Tandem warhead according to Claim 1, characterized in that a truncated conical disturbance zone (9) is located in front of the lining (6) on the target side.

5. Tandem warhead according to Claim 4, characterized in that the disturbance zone (9) consists of the control bellows (61) with the control body (41) 6. Tandem warhead according to Claim 4, characterized in that the disturbance zone (9) amounts to about -90% of the inner area of the lining (6) 7. Tandem warhead according to Claim 1, characterized in that, when the control bellows (61) is resting on it, the lining (6) has a central conical section (10) which is free and thus forms a jet.