Patent Application
20240418485
The present application claims priority to KR 10-2023-0077490, filed Jun. 16, 2023, the entire contents of which are incorporated herein for all purposes by this reference.
The present invention relates to a tandem warhead including a precursor neutralizing an explosive reactive armor, which is an additional armor for tanks, without detonating it, and a main warhead configured to destroy the main armor, and more particularly to a non-initiating tandem warhead with a precursor forming a powder jet against an explosive reactive armor, the powder jet leaving behind no residue of the precursor jet to maximize the penetration capability of the main warhead jet.
Shaped charges, a typical warhead technology employed in anti-tank weapon systems, propel high kinetic energy jets to penetrate a target and inflict damage. To effectively defend against these shaped charge jets threatening tanks, explosive reactive armor is attached to the main armor of tanks. Explosive reactive armor typically may include a layer of explosive sandwiched between two thin steel plates and serves as a highly efficient additional armor configured to reduce the penetration capability of the shaped charge jet significantly, with the steel plates flying out to disrupt the jet when the explosive reactive armor is detonated by the shaped charge jet.
A tandem-shaped charge warhead is employed in anti-tank weapon systems to counter tanks equipped with highly effective explosive reactive armor (ERA) against single-shaped charges. The tandem shaped charge warhead may include a precursor and a main warhead, both utilizing shaped charge technology. The precursor, positioned at the front, forms a high kinetic energy jet to detonate and eliminate the explosive reactive armor attached to the tank and thus allows the main warhead jet to destroy the tank's main armor unimpeded by the explosive reactive armor.
However, the technology for the explosive reactive armor has evolved to enhance the protective capability against these advanced conventional tandem shaped charge warheads. Thick steel plates are employed in the explosive reactive armor to disrupt the main warhead jet with their lower flying velocity, and larger-area flying plates are employed to damage the guided weapons directly so that the precursor cannot fully eliminate the explosive reactive armor, thereby causing the main warhead to lose penetration capability. Therefore, there is a growing need for a new concept of warhead systems to counter the latest explosive reactive armor, different from the conventional method of detonating the explosive reactive armor to eliminate it.
Korean Patent No. 10-2465010 filed by the present applicant disclosed a tandem warhead that utilizes explosively formed penetrator (EFP) technology in the precursor to form a trajectory minimizing the impact on the main warhead jet by not detonating the explosive reactive armor and thus maximizes the penetration capability of the main warhead. However, the conventional penetrator formed in the precursor employing the EFP technology leaves behind residue after penetrating the target and thus affects the penetration capability of the main warhead jet.
An object of the present invention is to provide a non-initiating tandem warhead with a precursor against an explosive reactive armor, the precursor being configured to form a low-density jet in powder form that may create a penetration hole in the explosive reactive armor for the main warhead jet to pass through without detonating explosives in the explosive reactive armor.
According to an embodiment of the present invention for resolving the issues described above, a non-initiating tandem warhead with a precursor forming a powder jet against an explosive reactive armor may include a projectile body equipped with warheads inside, a precursor disposed at the front inside the projectile body to form the powder jet, and a main warhead disposed behind the precursor inside the projectile body to penetrate a main armor through a penetration hole formed by the precursor.
Here, the precursor, configured to penetrate the explosive reactive armor of a tank without detonating it, may include a powder jet formation liner made of metal powder and a first charge applying explosive pressure towards the powder jet formation liner.
At this time, the powder jet formation liner is concave towards the front of the projectile body.
At this time, the powder jet formation liner is deformed into a powder jet shape protruding towards the explosive reactive armor and main armor by the explosive pressure of the first charge.
The powder jet formation liner is made by mixing metal powder and a binder, molding the mixture into a liner shape using powder injection molding, removing the binder using solvent and thermal degreasing technique, pre-sintering the binder-free structure to make a skeleton, and then impregnating the skeleton with a polymer-based material.
The main warhead is equipped with a main warhead liner open towards the precursor to form a cavity and a second charge configured, behind the main warhead liner, to provide explosive pressure towards the main warhead liner.
Here, the main warhead liner is concave towards the front of the projectile body.
At this time, the main warhead liner is deformed into a jet shape protruding towards the explosive reactive armor and the main armor by the explosive pressure of the second charge.
At this time, the main warhead may further include an explosive wave modulator provided inside the second charge to change the path of the explosive pressure.
Here, the explosive wave modulator may be made of either plastics or metals.
The present invention relates to a tandem warhead including a precursor neutralizing an explosive reactive armor, which is an additional armor for tanks, without detonating it and a main warhead configured to destroy a main armor. In particular, the precursor forms a powder jet and leaves behind no residue to maximize the penetration capability of the main warhead.
Hereinafter, a non-initiating tandem warhead with a precursor forming a powder jet against an explosive reactive armor according to an embodiment of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.
Here, the precursor 200 is configured to penetrate the explosive reactive armor 20 of tanks without detonating it and may include a powder jet formation liner 210 made of metal powder and a first charge 220 applying explosive pressure towards the powder jet formation liner 210.
At this time, the powder jet formation liner 210 is concave towards the front of the projectile body 100 and may have various forms such as a cone, a trumpet, a dish employed in the explosively formed penetrator technology, and the like.
An explosive wave modulator may be mounted in the first charge (220) as needed.
The material for the powder jet formation liner 210 may include metal powder materials such as aluminum, tungsten, copper, and the like.
The powder jet formation liner 210, when put to use, may be deformed into a powder jet shape protruding towards the explosive reactive armor 20 and main armor 10 by the explosive pressure of the first charge 220 to effectively create a path for the main warhead 300 to pass through.
Compared to conventional liners manufactured by forging, the powder jet formation liner 210 has a lower density, and thus weight reduction of the warhead is made possible.
The first charge 220 may use high-explosive explosives with RDS, HMX, and the like as the main components.
On the other hand, as can be seen in the following mathematical equation regarding the detonation criterion of the explosive, the density of the jet is one of the key factors in detonating the explosive. [Mathematical Equation]
where
Accordingly, the powder jet formation liner 210 configured to form a jet in a low-density powder form is employed in order not to detonate the explosive of the explosive reactive armor 20.
In other words, it is important to design the precursor such that a powder jet dense and fast enough to penetrate a reinforced steel plate without exceeding the threshold value ICr in order not to detonate the explosive used in the latest explosive reactive armor can be formed.
Compared to the jet of a typical shaped charge warhead, the powder jet formed in the precursor 200 by the powder jet formation liner 210, manufactured in the manner described above, may create a relatively larger penetration hole to create a path for the main warhead jet to pass through. In other words, the penetration hole in the explosive reactive armor created by the powder jet is larger than the penetration hole in the main armor. This is because the powder jet diffuses as it is ejected in powder form while the liner deforms the jet formed by the main warhead into a thin and sharp jet shape.
At this time, the diameter of the penetration hole created by the precursor 200 in the explosive reactive armor is at least 0.3 times the charge diameter (CD).
A main warhead liner 310 is provided so that a certain cavity is formed between the main warhead 300 and the precursor 200 in the projectile body 100.
A second charge 320 configured to provide explosive pressure towards the main warhead liner 310 is provided behind the main warhead liner.
Here, the main warhead liner 310 is concave towards the front of the projectile body 100 may have various tapering forms that widen towards the front, such as a cone, a trumpet, and the like.
An explosive wave modulator 330 may be provided inside the second charge 320 as needed.
The material for the main warhead liner 310 may include metals such as copper, aluminum, iron, and the like.
The second charge 320, like the precursor 200, may use high-explosive explosives with RDX, HMX, and the like as the main components, and the explosive wave modulator may use plastics such as polycarbonate and polytetrafluoroethylene (PTEF) and metals such as aluminum and iron.
The jet generated by the main warhead must possess sufficiently high kinetic energy to penetrate the main armor, and this energy requirement depends on the materials used for the explosive, liner, and explosive wave modulator.
The main warhead liner 310 is deformed into a jet shape protruding towards the explosive reactive armor 20 and the main armor 10 by the explosive pressure of the second charge 320 so that the main warhead jet can smoothly pass through the penetration path created by the precursor 200.
The precursor 200, when used against tanks, creates a penetration hole without detonating the explosive of the explosive reactive armor 200 and forms a powder jet to leave behind no residue so that the main warhead may smoothly penetrate the main armor 10.
Comparison between
The jet formed by the typical shaped charge has the potential to detonate the explosive in the explosive reactive armor 20. When the explosion does not eliminate the explosive reactive armor 20, it may rather interfere with the penetration capability of the main warhead 300.
In contrast,
In other words, the precursor 200 can create a penetration hole without detonating the explosive reactive armor 20.
In this case, a powder jet is formed and no residue is left behind when creating a path for the main warhead 300 to pass through to the main armor 10 so that deterioration of the penetration capability of the main warhead 300 by the residue may be prevented.
Subsequently, the binder is removed using solvent and thermal degreasing technique, the binder-free structure is pre-sintered to make a skeleton, and then the skeleton is impregnated with a polymer-based material to make the powder jet formation liner 210 such that the powder particles evenly diffuse while a sufficient level of strength for handling is secured.
In addition, the powder jet formation liner 210 may also be made using only brittle metals.
As a result, the powder jet formation liner 210 creates a penetration hole without detonating the explosive reactive armor 20 and leaves behind no residue so that deterioration of penetration capability caused by the residue when the main warhead 300 penetrates the main armor 10 may be prevented.
At this time, the diameter of the penetration hole in the explosive reactive armor 20 created by the precursor 200 is at least 0.3 times the charge diameter of the precursor 200.
Meanwhile, the powder jet formation liner 210 minimizes residue by forming the powder jet when penetrating the explosive reactive armor so that the deterioration of penetration efficiency caused by the residue when the main warhead 300 penetrates the main armor 10 may be prevented.
According to the present invention as described above, in destroying the armor of a tank, the precursor first comes into contact with the explosive reactive armor and creates a penetration hole without detonating the explosive reactive armor to create a path through which the main warhead can penetrate the main armor so that the main warhead may penetrate the main armor unimpeded by the explosive reactive armor, and at the same time, the precursor forms the powder jet using the powder jet formation liner so that no residue is left behind. As a result, the deterioration of the penetration capability of the main warhead caused by the residue of the precursor may be prevented.
In the tandem warhead with the precursor forming the powder jet against an explosive reactive armor according to an embodiment of the present invention, the precursor secures a path for the main warhead to pass through without detonating the explosive reactive armor provided in tanks in the anti-tank weapon systems, thereby having the effect of maximizing the penetration capability of the main warhead.
The liner provided in the precursor is a powder jet formation liner and leaves no residue when the precursor penetrates an explosive reactive armor to secure a path for the main warhead jet to pass through, thereby having the effect of maximizing the penetration capability of the main warhead.
In addition, the liner structured to form a powder jet has a lower density compared to the liner made using conventional forging/machining processes, thereby having the effect of reducing warhead weight.
| Number | Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 10-2023-0077490 | Jun 2023 | KR | national |
