Explosive projectile

A projectile adapted to receive a longitudinal acceleration of limited time duration and a rotational acceleration of limited time duration comprising:

• a housing having a longitudinal axis;
• a forward high explosive charge assembly disposed in a forward part of said housing;
• an inertial mass assembly disposed in an aft part of said housing;
• a time delay fuze mechanism hving a safed disposition and an armed disposition, and disposed in said housing between said forward charge assembly and said inertial mass assembly;
• said fuze mechanism including
• a substantially spherical cavity which is symmetrical about said axis,
• a substantially spherical rotor disposed in said cavity and having an axis of mass symmetry and a diametral bore which is coaxial with said axis of mass symmetry and contains a detonator assembly therein serving to function said forward charge assembly;
• said inertial mass assembly having a mode of operation as to initially secure said fuze mechanism in its safed disposition, subsequent to set-back of said projectile to release said fuze mechanism to permit the arming thereof, and thereafter to secure said fuze mechanism in its armed disposition;
• said inertial mass assembly is disposed in a first fixed cavity in said housing, is disposed for fore and aft movement along said longitudinal axis, and is initially biased forwardly by biasing means into a disposition whereat it interlocks with and secures said rotor in a disposition whereat said rotor bore is not aligned with said longitudinal axis;
• said inertial mass assembly has a smaller volume than the volume defined by said first cavity in said housing and defines a first residual cavity in said housing;
• said biasing means includes a volume of fluid which is releasably contained in said first residual cavity which is initially disposed aft of said inertial mass assembly;
• said inertial mass assembly defines a passageway in said first cavity so constructed and arranged that upon forward longitudinal acceleration of said projectile, said inertial mass assembly and said rotor undergo relative set-back to compress said biasing means to release fluid to pass through said passageway, and as said inertial mass assembly progressively sets-back it progressively decreases the volume of said first residual cavity aft of said inertial mass assembly and proressively defines a second residual cavity forward of said inertial mass assembly of progressively increasing volume, while said fluid passes through said passageway from said first residual cavity into said second residual cavity.