Came across this looking for other stuff very simple in the way it operates but shows what can be done with a bit of know how and a 500gm dished copper disc.
I realize there is allot more but the concept is very simple no tungsten core just copper but moving at 2K's a second thats pretty quick.
Information
Warning: This is a relatively older thread This discussion is older than 360 days. Some information contained in it may no longer be current.
Crafty little buggers, dish out a little bit of technology and thats what you get hey??
'Tonight my men and I have been through hell and back again, but the look on your faces when we let you out of the hall - we'd do it all again tomorrow.' Major Chris Keeble's words to Goose Green villagers on 29th May 1982 - 2 PARA
Dann,
Yes remember carefully cutting the last 3"off wine bottles with the dimples in the base and packing with PE. Used mostly on railway lines as a shaped charge and blew downwards which is in itself an interesting Scientific point!!
'Tonight my men and I have been through hell and back again, but the look on your faces when we let you out of the hall - we'd do it all again tomorrow.' Major Chris Keeble's words to Goose Green villagers on 29th May 1982 - 2 PARA
When you use a champagne bottle or even your issue melmac plate for the base, the explosive turns whatever the core is into the slug. That was standard training for the demolition instructors...and pioneers... We all studied that. Copper isn't required. As stated almost anything as long as it gives you the cone shape. You could spend time dishing out tin cans and get the same effect. Then guntape three steel spikes to the bottom for legs to give it the standoff and fire from outer space...
They are called "self-forging projectiles", or "explosively formed penetrators" and have been around for quite a while.
Sort of a variation / improvement on shaped charge with a liner.
The difference is that, for optimum penetration, HEAT / Shaped Charges have to be detonated quite close to the target, hence the long "nose on the classic "bazooka" or RPG round or the long "spigot" on the Karl Gustav 84mm HEAT round.
Self-forging projectiles are essentially "fired" from a very short "barrel" that can be several metres from the target. The main charge, behind a copper or copper/beryllium disc, launches that disc and forms it into an elongated, much-reduced diameter "pellet", traveling at "ludicrous speed". Excellent for "off-route" anti-vehicle mines, which is what unpleasant chaps in Iraq and Syria have been doing with increasing regularity.
"Up-market" variations include "top-strike" anti-tank missiles, in which the SFP charges are arranged so that, as the missile "misses' the top of the target, the SFP charges fire DOWNWARDS through the relatively thin turret roof or engine deck. NASTY! The downside of "top-attack" missiles is that the firer has to drive it to the target. However, it contains sensors that fire the AP warheads as it flies overhead. Example is the Swedish RBS-56 "BILL" that has been around since the early 1980's.
PM
