Warhead booster explosive lens
AssigneeRaytheon Company
InventorsA. Russ Althof, William R. Hawkins, Henri Y. Kim
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A cost-effective solution is proposed to improve explosive transfer between booster and warhead that is compatible with the existing base of general purpose warheads and flexible to work with new warhead configurations. A booster lens is placed in the fuze well that concentrates the pressure wave to penetrate the fuze well with a peak pressure that exceeds the detonation threshold and detonate the warhead explosive. The booster lens can be configured to control the direction of the concentrated lobe to penetrate the fuze well where the barriers are low.
Claims17
A munition, comprising:
- a warhead including a fuze well and a warhead explosive around the fuze well;
- a booster including a booster explosive placed inside the fuze well, said fuze well providing a physical barrier between the booster explosive and warhead explosive;
- a fuze behind the booster inside the fuze well that detonates the booster explosive creating a pressure wave with a peak pressure that has a forward axial component and a radial component;
- and
- a radial booster lens positioned between the booster and a closed end of the fuze well, said radial booster lens having a surface configured to re-direct a portion of the forward axial component in the radial direction to concentrate more energy in a lobe with increased peak pressure that travels approximately radially outward to penetrate the physical barrier formed by the fuze well and directly detonate the warhead approximately radially from the booster lens.
A fuze assembly for use in a fuze well of a warhead including a warhead explosive around the fuze well, comprising:
- a booster including a booster explosive placed inside the fuze well, said fuze well providing a physical barrier between the booster explosive and warhead explosive;
- a fuze configured to detonate the booster explosive to create a pressure wave having a forward axial component and a radial component;
- and
- a booster lens having a surface configured to re-direct a portion of the forward axial component of the pressure wave off of the lens surface in the radial direction to concentrate the pressure wave into a lobe in the radial direction with increased peak pressure to penetrate the physical barrier formed by the fuze well and directly detonate the warhead approximately radially from the booster lens.
A munition, comprising:
- a warhead including a fuze well and a warhead explosive around the fuze well;
- a booster including a booster explosive placed inside the fuze well, said fuze well providing a physical barrier between the booster explosive and warhead explosive;
- a fuze behind the booster inside the fuze well that detonates the booster explosive creating a pressure wave with a peak pressure;
- and
- a radial booster lens positioned between the booster and a closed end of the fuze well, said radial booster lens having a surface configured to re-direct and concentrate the pressure wave to penetrate the physical barrier formed by the fuze well and directly detonate the warhead approximately radially from the booster lens.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.