HB 876 mine

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HB 876

HB 876 bomblet casing.jpg

HB 876 bomblet casing
(Retardation and self-righting systems omitted)
Type Air-dropped frag mine
Place of origin United Kingdom
Production history
Variantssee Variants
Specifications
Weight 2.4 kg
Height 150 mm
Diameter 100 mm

Maximum firing range 300 m
Filling Composition B
Filling weight 590 G

The HB 876 mine was an air dropped area denial weapon. It was used as part of the JP233 runway denial system and the 'Hades' variant of the BL755 cluster bomb. As a result of the anti-personnel mine ban it was withdrawn from British Royal Air Force service, and the last stockpiles of the mine were destroyed on 19 October 1999. [1]

Area denial weapon

An area denial weapon or Anti Access/Area Denial (A2/AD) weapon system is a device or a strategy used to prevent an adversary from occupying or traversing an area of land, sea or air. The specific method used does not have to be totally effective in preventing passage as long as it is sufficient to severely restrict, slow down, or endanger the opponent. Some area denial weapons pose long-lasting risks to anyone entering the area, specifically to civilians, and thus are often controversial.

JP233

Originally known as the LAAAS, the JP233 was a British submunition delivery system consisting of large dispenser pods carrying several hundred submunitions designed to attack runways.

Runway Area of surface used by aircraft to takeoff from and land on

According to the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), a runway is a "defined rectangular area on a land aerodrome prepared for the landing and takeoff of aircraft". Runways may be a man-made surface or a natural surface.

Contents

Description

The mine is a cylinder consisting of three sections. The top section contains the warhead, consisting of an upward facing Misznay-Schardin effect warhead that creates an explosively formed penetrator capable of punching through heavy bulldozer blades. The dimpled sides of the cylinder have a shotgun effect, generating a pattern of metal fragments capable of penetrating steel plate beyond 20 metres and aluminium plate beyond 50 meters. The middle section of the mine contains the fuze, comprising a battery, safety and arming mechanism and electronic sensors. The bottom contains the parachute and a spring-loaded self-righting mechanism which opens like the petals of a sunflower after the device hits the ground.

Explosively formed penetrator

An explosively formed penetrator (EFP), also known as an explosively formed projectile, a self-forging warhead, or a self-forging fragment, is a special type of shaped charge designed to penetrate armor effectively. As the name suggests, the effect of the explosive charge is to deform a metal plate into a slug or rod shape and accelerate it toward a target. They were first developed as oil well perforators by American oil companies in the 1930s, and were first deployed as weapons in World War II.

Bulldozer tracked vehicle equipped with a substantial metal plate

A bulldozer or dozer is a crawler equipped with a substantial metal plate used to push large quantities of soil, sand, rubble, or other such material during construction or conversion work and typically equipped at the rear with a claw-like device to loosen densely compacted materials.

Shotgun smoothbore firearm which can fire one or more projectiles in a single firing

A shotgun is a firearm that is usually designed to be fired from the shoulder, which uses the energy of a fixed shell to fire a number of small spherical pellets called shot, or a solid projectile called a slug. Shotguns come in a wide variety of sizes, ranging from 5.5 mm (.22 inch) bore up to 5 cm (2.0 in) bore, and in a range of firearm operating mechanisms, including breech loading, single-barreled, double or combination gun, pump-action, bolt-, and lever-action, revolver, semi-automatic, and even fully automatic variants.

After the mine is ejected from either the 'Hades' cluster bomb or JP233 dispenser a drogue parachute is deployed to slow the mine. The drogue parachute is quickly followed by the main parachute. After impact and a brief delay the mine self-rights and after another delay it arms itself.

Drogue parachute

A drogue parachute is a parachute designed to be deployed from a rapidly moving object in order to slow the object, to provide control and stability, or as a pilot parachute to deploy a larger parachute. It was invented in Russia by Gleb Kotelnikov in 1912.

The mine is then either triggered by a toppling movement or electronically self-destructs after a pre-set delay of a few minutes to more than 24 hours.

Specifications

Composition B

Composition B, colloquially "Comp B", is an explosive consisting of castable mixtures of RDX and TNT. It is used as the main explosive filling in artillery projectiles, rockets, land mines, hand grenades and various other munitions. It was also used for the explosive lenses in the first implosion-type nuclear weapons developed by the United States.

Variants

Related Research Articles

Bomb explosive weapon

A bomb is an explosive weapon that uses the exothermic reaction of an explosive material to provide an extremely sudden and violent release of energy. Detonations inflict damage principally through ground- and atmosphere-transmitted mechanical stress, the impact and penetration of pressure-driven projectiles, pressure damage, and explosion-generated effects. Bombs have been utilized since the 11th century starting in East Asia.

The GATOR mine system is a United States military system of air-dropped anti-tank and anti-personnel mines developed in the 1980s to be compatible with existing cluster dispensers. It is used with two dispenser systems—the Navy 230 kg (500 lb) CBU-78/B and the Air Force 450 kg (1,000 lb) CBU-89/B. Additionally the mines are used with the land- and helicopter-based Volcano mine system.

Anti-runway penetration bomb

Anti-runway penetration bombs are systems involving bombs or bomblets designed to disrupt the surface of an airfield runway and make it unusable for flight operations.

The CBU-97 Sensor Fuzed Weapon is a United States Air Force 1,000-pound (450 kg)-class non-guided (freefall) Cluster Bomb Unit (CBU). It was developed and produced by Textron Defense Systems. The CBU-97 in conjunction with the Wind Corrected Munitions Dispenser guidance tail kit, which converts it to a precision-guided weapon, is designated CBU-105.

AA mine discharger

The AA mine discharger was a Japanese anti-aircraft weapon of the Second World War. The device was a simple tube like an infantry mortar of 70 mm or 81 mm caliber. Instead of a standard mortar bomb, the projectile was a tube containing seven individual mines, each approximately 11/16ths of an inch in diameter (18 mm) and 3 inches (76 mm) long. Each mine was equipped with its own parachute. When fired, the mortar threw the shell to a range of 3,000 to 4,000 feet and a maximum altitude of approximately 600 m. The shell ejected the mines at the top of its arc. They would then float down on their parachutes. They were fused to detonate on contact or after a fixed time period, damaging nearby aircraft. The projectile could alternatively be launched using a standard Type 11 70 mm infantry mortar.

Dual-Purpose Improved Conventional Munition

A Dual-Purpose Improved Conventional Munition (DPICM) is an artillery or surface-to-surface missile warhead designed to burst into sub-munitions at an optimum altitude and distance from the desired target for dense area coverage. The sub-munitions use both explosively formed penetrators for anti-armor work and fragmentation for antipersonnel work. Some sub-munitions may be designed for delayed reaction or mobility denial (mines). The air-to-surface variety of this kind of munition is better known as a cluster bomb. They are banned by some countries under the Convention on Cluster Munitions.

Gravel mines, also called Button mines, were small United States made air-dropped anti-personnel mines. They were used extensively during the Vietnam War as part of the McNamara Line. They were also used as a rapid-deployment area denial expedient, to provide a barrier during combat search and rescue (CSAR) operations between downed pilots or other endangered units and infantry threats.

Area Denial Artillery Munition

Area Denial Artillery Munition (ADAM) is a family of United States land mines and 155 mm artillery projectiles.

VS-50 mine

The VS-50 is a circular plastic cased anti-personnel blast mine, formerly manufactured by the now-defunct Valsella Meccanotecnica SpA, an Italian high-tech defence industry specialized in area denial systems which was also the manufacturer of the Valmara 69 and one of the first industries in the world to implement plastic construction for landmines. The design is similar to the TS-50 and VS-MK2 mine. It is blast resistant and can be used in a minimum metal configuration. Though unlikely to kill, the explosive charge contained within a VS-50 is quite sufficient to destroy the victim's foot: the blast is capable of penetrating 5 mm of mild steel leaving an 80 mm-diameter hole.

Anti-handling device

An anti-handling device is an attachment to or integral part of a landmine or other munition e.g. some fuze types found in general purpose air-dropped bombs, cluster bombs and sea mines. It is designed to prevent tampering. When the protected device is disturbed, it detonates, killing or injuring anyone within the blast area. There is a strong functional overlap of booby traps and anti-handling devices.

HPD series of mines

The HPD-1, HPD-2 and HPD-3 are a series of French electrically fuzed anti-tank landmines that use Misznay Schardin effect warheads. The entire series of mines conform to the United States MIL-STD-331.

In military munitions, a fuze is the part of the device that initiates function. In some applications, such as torpedoes, a fuze may be identified by function as the exploder. The relative complexity of even the earliest fuze designs can be seen in cutaway diagrams.

The M125 bomblet was a U.S. chemical sub-munition designed to deliver the nerve agent sarin. It was brought into service in 1954 with the M34 cluster bomb as part of the first U.S. air-delivered nerve agent weapon.

MW-1

The MW-1 is a German munitions dispenser similar to the British JP233. It is designed to be carried on the Tornado IDS, although it can be carried on the F-104 Starfighter and the F-4 Phantom. The MW-1 started to be phased out after the German Government ratified the Convention on Cluster Munitions in 2009.

The Stonefish naval influence mine is manufactured by a British defence company. It has been exported to friendly countries such as Australia, which has both warstock and training versions of Stonefish. There has been conjecture that South Africa, Chile, Iraq, Libya and possibly other countries may have gained access to either some early Stonefish information or to similar technology. The mine is named after the stonefish, a venomous fish of the same name.

The FT5 is a shoulder-launched, unguided and portable anti-tank rocket weapon. The weapon was built in South Africa by Somchem, a division of Denel based in Somerset West, now Rheinmetall Denel Munition. The weapon was designed with the primary function to provide soldiers with a weapon capable of destroying armoured fighting vehicles and modern main battle tanks. The weapon also had a secondary function of destroying bunkers and other fortifications.

SD 70 (bomb)

The SD 70 or thick walled explosive bomb in English was a fragmentation bomb used by the Luftwaffe during World War II.

References

See also

Anti-personnel mine form of land mine designed for use against humans

Anti-personnel mines are a form of mine designed for use against humans, as opposed to anti-tank mines, which are designed for use against vehicles. Anti-personnel mines may be classified into blast mines or fragmentation mines, the latter may or may not be a bouncing mine.

Land mine explosive weapon, concealed under or on the ground

A land mine is an explosive device concealed under or on the ground and designed to destroy or disable enemy targets, ranging from combatants to vehicles and tanks, as they pass over or near it. Such a device is typically detonated automatically by way of pressure when a target steps on it or drives over it, although other detonation mechanisms are also sometimes used. A land mine may cause damage by direct blast effect, by fragments that are thrown by the blast, or by both.