US Government as Represented by the Secretary of the Army

Peter Rottinger

Richard Fong

Henry Hsieh

Tomasz Blyskal

Tom Blyskal

A fragmentation warhead with a flexible liner enables increased control of the warhead's fragmentation pattern. The flexible liner is fixed to a rigid portion of the warhead housing. Explosive material is contained in the housing. A fluid is disposed between the explosive material and the flexible liner to function as a shock transition material. The fluid is contiguous with and bears on an inner surface of the flexible liner. A plurality of rigid fragments or a plurality of explosively formed projectile (EFP) liners are fixed to an outer surface of the flexible liner opposite the fluid. Initiation of the explosive material propels the fragments or EFP liners in directions that may be varied by varying the shape of the flexible liner.

Fragmentation warhead with flexible liner

A fragmentation warhead comprising manual selection means for generating larger fragments versus smaller fragments upon detonation. The warhead includes a generally cylindrically shaped fragmenting metal outer warhead within which lies a generally cylindrically shaped explosive charge. Cylindrically arranged ring mechanisms within the warhead may be rotated to select desired fragmentation patterns.

Adaptive fragmentation mechanism to enhance lethality

The dynamically configurable controlled fragmentation insert mechanism of this invention includes an assembly of three or more sleeves with differing through hole patterns thereon, that fit inside the shell casing. The individual sleeves can move independently of one another and a simple pinning mechanism holds the parts in place for a selected configuration. The warfighter can realign the insert sleeves by to create different geometric patterns of holes, each designed to engage a different target set with optimally sized fragments. The aligned patterns of holes creates individual geometric shapes that focus high-velocity jets to cut into the steel shell casing to correlate to the through-holes in the aligned patterned sleeves. Realigning the insert sleeves changes the through-hole pattern to produce different fragment sizes and mass distributions. To defeat light armored vehicles for instance, a warfighter can deploy a sleeve hole pattern to produce larger fragments with greater penetrating power, while to engage enemy troops for instance, a warfighter can 'dial in' another hole pattern through the fuze assembly to otherwise produce a much larger number of smaller, lighter fragments.

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Sussex, NJ, United States of America

Peter Rottinger