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Shell & Missile warheads

A

AE501

HONOURED MEMBER RIP
See the Thunderbird HECR warhead with the anti spall liner (see the wing section of Francis Gary Powers' U2 spy plane which came down in Russia about 1962 - see recent Tom Hanks film 'Bridge of Spies' - good film).

See also the SG 357 runway penetrator components, used with the HB876 airfield repair denial bomblet, both dispensed from the JP233 reusable dispenser, but which can be jettisoned if necessary..

The US were going to adopt this but found that the airfields to be attacked had thicker runways than they thought so they adopted the French Durandal penetrator instead, which was a much bigger beast.
 

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  • 60 Sectioned Shells & Missile warheads - 1.jpg
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The thunderbird warhead is a so called "continuous rod"" type warhead, hence the concave plasic liner in the side.

Regards, DJH
 
Hecr

1 Warhead GM K11 HECR section external - 1.jpg2 Warhead GM K11 HECR section internal - 1.jpg3 Warhead GM K11 HECR section double rod layer - 1.jpg4 Warhead HECR section double rod alternate welds - 1.jpg5 Warhead HECR usage - 1.jpg
Photo 1 is the outside of a Warhead GM K11 HECR for Thunderbird, 2 is internal view, 3 shows the double rod configuration (inner and outer) welded to each other alternately, 4 is three figures demonstrating this and 5 shows how the rod hoop is formed and its application.

This was a US creation which appeared in the 1949 to 1953 combat stage of the Korean War. Prior to this was a similar idea called 'discrete rod' which were rods set in resin matrix but not connected, which flew off in all directions when the explosive filling detonated.

More recently the move was to pre fragmented warheads, but nowadays the avionics of the guidance systems is so good that the missile is expected to hit the target, so only a small HE warhead is used in case the target is a larger aircraft like a transport.
 
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