USA As Represented by Secretary of the Navy

Paul E Cordle

Melvin J McCubbin

Clifford T Johnson

James K Brown

A warhead comprising an explosive charge surrounded by discrete individual etal fragments is increased in effectiveness by the addition of pyrophoric fragment material combined therewith. For this purpose, misch metal or zirconium-tin sleeves are placed around or within the fragmentation layers or, alternatively, a percentage of the ferrous metal cubes are replaced with a number of preformed zirconium fragments.

Incendiary fragmentary warhead

The forward end of a warhead casing is structured to improve warhead penetion characteristics. The forward wall of the warhead casing is configured with thicker peripheral portions tapering to a thinner central portion and the warhead explosive is separated from the forward wall by a shock pad.

Warhead, penetrating nose shape

A large warhead explosive is provided with a metal liner having longitudi corrugations. The shape of the liner causes the warhead to deliver concentrated amounts of energy to targets at some distance from the point of detonation. This energy is in the form of hypervelocity fragment beams produced by what is known as 'Monroe effect' caused by the jetting of the liner as the detonation wave front progresses along the warhead.

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China Lake, CA, United States of America

Paul E Cordle