Air burst

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
"Airburst" redirects here. For the video game, see
V-2 § Air burst problem. For the atmospheric explosion of meteors, see Meteor air burst
.
UGM-109 Tomahawk missile detonates above a test target, 1986.

An air burst or airburst is the detonation of an

ground zero
.

History

Carl Gustav recoilless rifle
High Explosive round

Air burst artillery has a long history. The shrapnel shell was invented by Henry Shrapnel of the British Army in about 1780 to increase the effectiveness of canister shot. It was used in the later Napoleonic wars and stayed in use until superseded in Artillery of World War I. Modern shells, though sometimes called "shrapnel shells", actually produce fragments and splinters, not shrapnel. [1]

Air bursts were used in the First World War to shower enemy positions and men with shrapnel balls to kill the largest possible number with a single burst. When infantry moved into deep trenches, shrapnel shells were rendered useless and high-explosive shells were used to attack field fortifications and troops in the open. The time fuses for the shells could be set to function on contact or in the air, or at a certain time after contact.

Early anti-aircraft warfare used time fuses to function when they reached the estimated altitude of the target. During World War II a "proximity fuze" was developed for antiaircraft use, controlled by a Doppler radar device within the shell that caused it to explode when near the target. The idea was later adapted for use against ground targets.

During the Vietnam War, air bursting shells were used to great effect to defend bases. This tactic was known as "Killer Junior" when referring to 105 mm or 155 mm shells, and "Killer Senior" when employed with larger howitzers.[2]

Some anti-personnel bounding mines such as Germany's World War II "Bouncing Betty" fire a grenade into the air, which detonates at waist level, increasing the blast radius and harm inflicted by detonation, shock wave, and flying splinters.

A relatively recent example of airburst munitions is the

K11, QTS-11, Norinco LG5 / QLU-11 and Multi Caliber Individual Weapon System
.

Orbital ATK developed air burst rounds for autocannons.[3][4]

Nuclear weapons

A blast wave reflecting from a surface and forming a mach stem

The air burst is usually 100 to 1,000 m (330 to 3,280 ft) above the

fireball from touching the ground, limiting the amount of debris that is vaporized and drawn up in the radioactive debris cloud. For the Hiroshima bomb, an air burst 550 to 610 m (1,800 to 2,000 ft) above the ground was chosen "to achieve maximum blast effects, and to minimize residual radiation on the ground as it was hoped U.S. troops would soon occupy the city".[5]

Some nuclear weapons have a contact preclusion fuzing feature to prevent the backup contact fuze from detonating the weapon if the air burst fuzing fails.[6]

Tactics

In conventional warfare, air bursts are used primarily against infantry in the open or unarmored targets, as the resulting fragments cover a large area but will not penetrate armor or field fortifications.

In nuclear warfare, air bursts are used against soft targets (i.e. lacking the hardened construction required to survive overpressure from a nuclear explosion) such as cities in countervalue targeting, or airfields, radar systems and mobile ICBMs in counterforce targeting.

Killer Junior and Senior

Killer Junior and Killer Senior are techniques of employing artillery direct fire air bursts, first developed during the Vietnam War.[7] The technique involves a howitzer firing a high explosive (HE) shell using a mechanical time–super quick (MTSQ) artillery fuze set to cause an airburst over a target in very close proximity to the firing gun's position. Set properly, the shell would detonate approximately 10 meters (33 feet) above the ground at ranges of 200 to 1,000 meters.

The term Killer Junior was applied to this technique when used with 105 mm or 155 mm howitzers, and the term Killer Senior applied to its use with the

battery which developed the technique. The technique was later perfected by Lieutenant Colonel Robert Dean, commander of the 1st Battalion, 8th Field Artillery Regiment, of the 25th Infantry Division Artillery.[citation needed
]

Killers Junior and Senior were developed as alternatives to the Beehive flechette rounds previously used against nearby enemy troops. The advantage of the Killer techniques over Beehive is that the airburst projects fragments in all directions, and is able to wound enemies crawling or lying in defilade, whereas the flechettes of a Beehive round would simply fly harmlessly over a low target.

See also

References

  1. ^ "What is the difference between artillery shrapnel and shell fragments?". Combat Forces Journal. March 1952. Archived from the original on 10 February 2017.
  2. ^ Major General David Ewing Ott. FIELD ARTILLERY, 1954–1973. Department of the Army. Washington, D.C., 1975.
  3. ^ "30mm & 20mm x 173mm Munition System". Archived from the original on 2017-07-02. Retrieved 2017-11-27.
  4. ^ "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2017-03-29. Retrieved 2017-11-27.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  5. ISBN 0-688-06910-X
  6. ^ History of the Mk28 (Report). Sandia National Laboratories. August 1968.
  7. ^ Major General David Ewing Ott (1975), Field Artillery, 1954–1973 (PDF), Washington, D.C.: Department of the Army, p. 61, archived from the original (PDF) on 2017-06-29, retrieved 2020-06-19
  8. ISBN 1856486389
    .
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