Guest
Here we have a fired/empty single-use FGM-148 Javelin missile launch tube. The two silver cylindrical objects that I pick up and show to the camera are the precursor warhead and the primary warhead that were contained within the Javelin missile. Both warheads are free of explosives and have been cross-sectioned in our machine shop to reveal the profile of the copper cones. These copper cones are the heart of the missile and would have contained a high explosive behind the cone. The two shaped charges worked together as a single tandem warhead. The precursor warhead (smaller unit) is to detonate any explosive reactive armor and the primary warhead (larger unit) to penetrate base armor. It has been reported that this tandem warhead arrangement is capable of penetrating in excess of 760mm of rolled homogeneous armor. A shaped charge is an explosive charge shaped to focus the effect of the explosive's energy. A typical modern shaped charge, with a metal liner on the charge cavity, can penetrate armor steel to a depth of seven or more times the diameter of the charge (charge diameters, CD), though depths of 10 CD and above have been achieved. Contrary to a misconception, possibly resulting from the acronym for high-explosive anti-tank, HEAT, the shaped charge does not depend in any way on heating or melting for its effectiveness; that is, the explosively-formed jet from a shaped charge does not melt its way through armor, as its effect is purely kinetic in nature – however the process creates significant heat and often has a significant secondary incendiary effect after penetration.
