2 ms·
That's part of it. There's also a point where the kinetic energy of impact surpasses the chemical energy of explosives for equivalent mass. This is around Mach
by jasonwatkinspdx 9y ago
That's part of it. There's also a point where the kinetic energy of impact surpasses the chemical energy of explosives for equivalent mass. This is around Mach 10 as a huge ballpark figure. So with intercepting high mach and ablatively shielded targets like ballistic missiles, it might be better to budget your projectile mass to increasing likelihood of a hit vs attempting to damage via a proximity explosion.
- grkvlt 9y agoThe UK Starstreak [0] missile seems to be trying for a compromise with a combination of relatively high speed (Mach 4.0) kinetic tungsten penetrator with a very small (again, relatively) 450g high explosive charge. It's an odd looking thing, because the sub-munitions aren't faired over at launch so you get this normal looking tube shaped missile with three tiny missiles stuck on the front. It seems they rely on proximity fuzing with time delay, so once the penetrator has breached the aircraft skin, causing a reasonable amount of damage, it waits until it knows its inside and then detonates for maximum effect. I guess three of the penetrators hitting your plane at M4.0 within a ~1.5m group is enough to make you have a very bad day, even if the explosive warheads turn out to be all duds! 0. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Starstreak https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Starstreak
- jasonwatkinspdx 9y agoStarstreak is a really clever design. They use a neat clutched rotation mechanism with skewed fins to get 2d attitude control via a 1d clutch signal. The US adopted a similar mechanism to build a smart fuse that can be used with existing dumb artillery shells to give them gps guidance at low cost.