Description
The warhead contains nine each multipurpose submunitions for use against personnel, materiel, and light armor.
The complete round consists of a warhead with an integral fuze and a rocket motor.
The warhead consists of a nose cone assembly, a warhead case, an integral fuze, nine submunitions, and an expulsion charge assembly. The nose cone assembly is a plastic cone bonded to a metal cup-shaped base and is attached to the body by shear pins. The body is a hollow cylinder loaded with nine full caliber multipurpose submunitions (MPSM). Each submunition has a folded Ram Air Decelerator (RAD) which nests into the shaped charge cone of the submunition ahead. The ninth (forward) submunition nests into the forward cup which makes up the base of the nose cone. A metal pusher plate is located just aft of the submunition cargo stack and is forward of the expulsion charge assembly. The threaded end of the body is machined internally to accommodate a base detonating, remote settable, variable range fuze.
The primary warhead fuze, M439 RC, is a resistance-capacitance electronic variable time delay fuze. The time delay is remotely set for the desired functioning distance (time) by charging the circuit from the fire control center. The fuze begins timing at the first motion of the rocket and will function at the prescribed time if the safety and arming device (S&A) is armed. The S&A is a mechanical acceleration integrator with an unbalanced rotor holding the M84 electric detonator and a runaway escapement. An acceleration greater than 27G's is necessary to arm the fuze. The M439 RC fuze is a base mounted, forward firing fuze. The fuze connector cable extends from the fuze through the warhead (in a lengthwise channel) and exits the ogive for connection to the launcher by an umbilical cable.
The HE, MPSM M73 consists of a steel body with a fragmenting wall filled with Composition B explosive incorporating a shaped charge liner, LX14 booster, explosive lead charge, M230 omni-directional fuze with M55 detonator, wave shaper, and fabric drag device (RAD). The fragmenting body produces 10 grain fragments with a maximum velocity of approximately 5,000 fps.
The spin stabilized wraparound fin rocket is an air-to-ground rocket primarily deployed from rotary-wing and other lowspeed aircraft. It can also be used on Air Force and Navy jet aircraft as well as in the Mobile Ground Launcher System.
Functioning
No information about functioning.
Hazardous Components
No information about hazardous components.
See Also
Source(s)
Afghanistan Ordnance ID Guide, Volume 1 (2004)
TM 43-0001-30, Rockets (chg 14, 2001)
