SMAW-NE-GO-BOOM!
PS: the "daily KOStic" crew is blowing their lunch over these..
see: On Click Morons"
Posted on 12/01/2005 4:17:20 PM PST by SandRat
MARINE CORPS BASE QUANTICO, Va. (Dec. 1, 2005) -- The Marine Corps’ newest addition to the Shoulder Launched Multipurpose Assault Weapon family of munitions, designed to root out al Qaeda and Taliban forces in the caves of Afghanistan, is proving its worth on the streets of Fallujah and elsewhere in Iraq.
Although the SMAW-Novel Explosive round functions just like the 21-year-old SMAW High Explosive Dual-Purpose round, the SMAW-NE boasts a much larger explosive fill. The SMAW-NE contains four pounds of PBXN-113, an aluminized high explosive composition with similar characteristics to the 2.4-pound load of Aluminized Composition A3 fill in the SMAW-HEDP round.
The SMAW-NE also uses delayed fusing, allowing the warhead to detonate after penetrating lightly-clad structures, in some cases completely destroying the targeted building.
Michael Woodson, Marine Corps Systems Command’s SMAW project officer, said the SMAW-NE gives Marines a stand-off capability when clearing buildings in urban settings, avoiding the hazardous practice of engaging the enemy in close quarters combat.
“Unlike the dual purpose round, which would most likely hit the structure and detonate on the outside and put a hole in it, the kinetic energy of the (SMAW-NE) round itself will punch a hole in (the structure), then it will go into delay mode and detonate inside,” said Woodson. “What happens in this particular case, because you’re in an enclosed space, the shockwave reflects off the walls, amplifying the effect. Depending on the construction of that structure, it could bring it down. If you fired that NE round against reinforced concrete or triple brick, it most likely wouldn’t penetrate the wall. That’s why the Marines in Iraq, when they employ the NE, fire it through an existing opening like a window or door, or if they don’t have an opening, they will make an opening with a dual-purpose round and shoot the (NE round) through that hole.”
Also in the SMAW family is the SMAW-High Explosive Anti-Armor round, and the inert Common Practice Training round.
In April 2003, early in Operation Iraqi Freedom, a Systems Command liaison team reported two firings of the SMAW-NE. The first successfully leveled a large one-story masonry building from 100 meters. The second reportedly failed to breach a masonry wall after the unit unsuccessfully attempted to enter the structure by mechanically breaching a door.
Woodson said further field reports following more recent urban conflicts in Iraq have been overwhelmingly positive.
“The operators, the people who have been there and employed the weapon, love it,” said Woodson. “The users like it and they want more.”
Woodson also responded to recent criticism of the “brutal” force of the Novel Explosive round.
“It is not a fuel air explosive. It is not any profound new target-defeat mechanism,” said Woodson. “The way the warhead functions and the way the event takes place is no different from the dual-purpose round. The only difference is you have 1.6 more pounds of explosive, and you have a warhead case that is designed to punch a hole in a lightly clad structure and detonate inside.
Thermobarics were originally looked at as a technology to meet the requirement, however, based on engineering analysis, the use of a conventional type of solid explosive met the need, vice the quasi-liquid mixtures used in thermobarics.
Woodson also challenged the suggestion that the NE round is too brutal for its intended use.
“The key part of this whole discussion that is ongoing now is the implication that this is something inhumane, and it’s not. There is documentation to prove that,” Woodson said. “If it didn’t comply with the Law of War criteria, we wouldn’t field it. This is a requirement we have to go through before we can get approval for service use of a weapon.”
A September 2002 legal review of the SMAW-NE by the Judge Advocate General of the Navy defined indiscriminate, or “blind” weapons as not distinguishing between combatants and innocent civilians. The NE round did not fall into this category of illegal weapon because it is fired from “the existing SMAW and will be aimed at point targets via the open battle sights or the MK 42 optical or the AN/PVS-4 night sight … The (NE round) is discriminate as it can be aimed in a manner that discriminates between combatants and non-combatants.”
The review also reported the temperatures in the target area were not significant enough to classify the SMAW-NE as an incendiary weapon. It further stated the lethality of the weapon is caused primarily by its concussion with secondary effects from flying debris from the target area.
“Anything that kills people is inhumane, but the implication is (the SMAW-NE) is in violation of the laws of war, and it’s not,” Woodson said. “Why isn’t the Marine Corps running around, beating its chest about it? What advantage is that? Why would we tell the bad guys what this thing can do? Why would we let them know we have any capability? The SMAW-NE is just another effective tool in the USMC arsenal.”
TOUGH! hehehehehehe
I love your threads. Thanks for posting them.
badass munitions ping
Hit 'em again...hit 'em again.....HARDER...HARDER!!!! Great news about this weapon.
Once upon a time, the Marines developed a new form of ballistic round that allowed them to kill murdering animals better. Soon, there were no murdering animals left, and the world was a better place.
SMAW-NE-GO-BOOM!
PS: the "daily KOStic" crew is blowing their lunch over these..
see: On Click Morons"
That would make a good childrens' bedtime book/story. They woud feel safer and sleep better knowing the Marines are looking out for them all over the world.
the Marine nickname for that is the Atomic Flatulence (of course the Marines prefer the more crude way of saying that).
Oh My...
Beautiful pictures. Thank you.
Your Tax Dollars hard at work...why this is better than the neutron bomb! Or the Davy Crocket Shoulder Launched Tactical Nuke and just in time for Christmas...hey kids wanna wake up the neighbors?
Rat I read the descrip in the Kos and I got all "misty"...figures that the PC crowd is worried over the inhumanity of these thermobaric warheads...but hey weren't those jets on 911 kind of the same? They struck first we therefore we are fully justified in utilizing these babies...
A dead Jihadist is a good Jihadist
Boom...
Too bad there's no depleted uranium to give the lefties even more to b!tch and moan about.
very nasty.
Bump!
Well Said!
LOL
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