Blast Frag Warhead for the Hellfire Missile to Defeat Ships and Bunkers

摘要

This paper reports the successful development and performance of a multipurpose warhead for the Hellfire missile. This blast-frag warhead was designed to perforate a target wall and detonate inside the compartment. The new warhead extends Hellfire's defeat capability to patrol boats and MOUT targets. The paper presents performance requirements, hydrocode and analytical analyses, and test results of the explosive load and warhead body. Test results include: (1) Half scale gun tests - that evaluated perforation and ricochet performance of two nose shapes against RHA, mild steel, and fiberglass targets; (2) Full scale dynamic sled tests - that demonstrated successful perforation of steel and brick targets with a missile guidance section; and (3) Static arena tests - that demonstrated two different fragment shapes plus a safe-separation test to prove that the launch platform is safe from aft fragments.