Multi-charge munitions, incorporating hole-boring charge assemblies

Multi-charge munition for attacking a target having a surface, said munition travelling towards said target, said munition comprising:

• a detonatable array of at least two hollow primary charges of explosive supported laterally about a fore-and-aft line of target penetration, each primary charge including a recessed forward face and a liner of non-explosive material lining said forward face, each said primary comprising a means, when said primary charge is detonated, for projecting a penetrator derived from the liner forwards along a line of trajectory extending from the array towards the target, said at least two penetrators comprising a means for boring a hole in said target on said line of target penetration;
• a secondary cratering charge of explosive located on said fore-and-aft line of target penetration rearward of said array;
• a fuse system for initiating detonation of said array of primary charges and said secondary charge in sequence;
• a primary detonation means, responsive to said fuse system, for detonating the primary charges in the array in a temporal relationship with respect to one another such that the penetrators are projected towards the target and said line of target penetration concurrently to produce a hole therein;
• and
• a secondary detonation means, responsive to said fuse system, for detonating the secondary charge, said secondary detonation means including delay means for delaying detonation of the secondary charge with respect to detonation of the primary charges, said delay means comprising a means for permitting detonation of the secondary charge when the secondary charge is located partly within the hole produced in the target by the penetrators of the array of primary charges.