After Cluster Bombs: Raining Nails

[Ichingcarpenter]

America hasn't agreed to the new international agreement on cluster bombs. But there is new pressure to find alternatives to the munitions. And that's led to a US Army warhead which saturates the target area with thousands of lethal darts.

The Army's Multiple Launch Rocket System (pictured above) has a particularly serious problem when it comes to leaving dangerous duds. The standard missile contains 644 M77 grenades; a single salvo will involve three vehicles each firing their complement of twelve rockets – that's 23,184 grenades in the target area. The aim is a dud rate of two percent. But even at one percent, that's 200 potentially lethal bombs left scattered over a wide area, posing a threat to friendly troops and civilians. The missile cannot be used in Afghanistan or Iraq for this reason.

This is why the Army have developed an alternative warhead. It is based on the GPS-guided version of the MLRS rocket, so it is far more accurate than the earlier rockets. The warhead consists of thousands of small darts, or flechettes. (The Army calls them "kinetic energy rods.") Flechettes, from the French for "little arrow" go way back; aircraft used to drop them in World War I, though not with much effect.

As with the mine-busting darts I looked at last year, the key to its effectiveness is dispensing the payload evenly over a wide area. This involves a clever packing technique and a spinning warhead which breaks open at high altitude so that the darts are well distributed at the time of impact.

>>>>>snip

http://blog.wired.com/defense/2008/05/after-cluster-b.html

[damntexdem]

1. At least the nails won't explode for years after being dropped.

Of course, we'd better watch to see what is actually developed -- e.g., maybe they'll decide to make the nails out of depleted uranium.