FEASIBILITY STUDY OF A 90 MM T91HE WHITE MARKER SHELL

摘要

White phosphorus is used in the 90 mm T92 smoke shell but its use leads to problems in loading and storage. Previous development work on marker shell indicated that red phos¬phorus plus a binder might constitute an acceptable white smoke shell. Pica-tinny Arsenal proposed a program to develop such a design, and received authorization to load a number of 90 mm T91 HE shell with red phosphorus plus an explosive core. Further investiga¬tion of red phosphorus as a smoke agent revealed, however, that it too presents loading and stability problems. Red phosphorus, treated to remove traces of copper and iron and then coated with 2 1/2% alumina, is reportedly stable. It was decided to conduct a feasibility study on stabilized red phosphorus (SRP) to evaluate its performance as a smoke-producing agent. It was hoped that shell containing SRP would serve several purposes, such as spotting, fragmenta¬tion, and possibly screening.