Are the Israelis using smaller Hellfire warheads?

"Jim Yanik" wrote in message
.. .
"Kevin Brooks" wrote in
:


"Jim Yanik" wrote in message
.. .
Glenfiddich wrote in
:

On Tue, 20 Apr 2004 15:52:44 -0400, Yeff
wrote:

I've seen it suggested on some web pages that the Israelis are
using smaller Hellfire warheads for their anti-terror strikes than
come standard. Is this true and, if so, does anyone have a good
cite?

Highly likely - if it *was* a Hellfire.

Check the early pictures of the last airstrike - the blast didn't
even remove the car's hubcaps.
Ignore later pictures - reports say the car was vandalised by
souvenir seekers.


Well,Hellfire uses a shaped charge warhead,so it makes a "jet' of
penetrating metal,tearing through the car's interior and the blast
may occur outside the car,and it would not affect the
hubcaps/wheelcovers.

Think about what you just said. The fact that the standard Hellfire
uses a HEAT warhead does not really greatly affect the blast effect;
it only means that a portion of the blast has been used (as it expands
outward) to invert the liner and turn it into a stream of really hot
metal and gas focused on a small area. The explosive still exhibits a
generally spherical blast pattern overall. Set a fifteen pound demo
shaped charge against the average passenger vehicle and you'll see
that it does not *need* the shaped charge effect to do a pretty good
number on the target; that much HE going off in close contact to the
car will tend to ruin everyone's day if they were unfortunate enough
to be inside it.

Brooks


--
Jim Yanik
jyanik-at-kua.net



I *did* think about what I wrote.
The blast is going to occur in a place where the roughly spherical blast
front is not likely to affect wheel covers or hubcaps.
The jet will not do much damage in itself,the majority of damage inside -
will- be caused by the blast.

My guess is you have never seen these kind of warheads go off in proximity
to a thin-skinned vehicle--they do tend to do a lot more than you seem to
think against that kind of target.

Brooks


--
Jim Yanik
jyanik-at-kua.net