hodehum
New Member
Posts: 21
From: New Zealand
Registered: FEB 2001
posted 04-04-2001 01:39 AM
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I recall a piece of information regarding a particular type of anti-tank shell.
HESH or High Explosive Squash Head, it's basically a shell with a soft outer front casing, filled with a soft moldable explosive, when the shell hits, the explosive spreads out against the target and then the fuze detonates. The resulting explosion does very little damage to the external armor, but pieces of internal armor are flung around inside and high speed from the shockwave of the explosion causing massive damage to internal components and crew.

I was wondering if anyone had any info regarding what explosive/s are used in these shells, what sort of fuze is used and how i works, what sorts of materials are used for the front casing and any ideas on any improvisation for a shell of this kind?



Bitter
Frequent Poster
Posts: 290
From: 11 Downing Street, London, England
Registered: SEP 2000
posted 04-04-2001 10:57 AM
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I thought HESH rounds were used to demolish bunkers and buildings rather than tanks. I suppose the explosive used in them is something similar to C-4 only less plastic, perhaps PVC is used instead of polyiso. The shell will probably flatten on impact and detonate from the force of the impact against the target. No acctual detonator or anything is needed, I don't think.


Agent Blak
Frequent Poster
Posts: 766
From: Sk. Canada
Registered: SEP 2000
posted 04-05-2001 12:38 AM
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Hig velocity would be a must which can possiblely limit the range. I like to be safe so I would put a detonator in the anyways...but thats just me.

------------------
A wise man once said:
"...There Will Be No
Stand Off At High Noon
... Shoot'em In The Back
And, Shoot'em In The Dark"

Agent Blak-------OUT!!



Microtek
Frequent Poster
Posts: 205
From:
Registered: JAN 2001
posted 04-06-2001 07:15 AM
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The shockwave needs to travel from the rear end of the round to the squashed front end in order to generate the spalling effect.
Because of this the explosive is initiated from the rear end by a detonator and probably a booster. I don't know about the actual design, but I would guess that a piezo-electric element in the front would ignite a delayed detonator on impact, giving the round time to squash.


Predator
Frequent Poster
Posts: 141
From: Unknown
Registered: SEP 2000
posted 04-06-2001 01:11 PM
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Actually you can make a detonator to suit a round like that pretty easily, just use a inertia driven detonator so that when the round impacts the detonator goes off and in turn igniting the squash head explosive. Using this method there isn't a risk of the detonator going off in the gun.


BoB-
Frequent Poster
Posts: 679
From:
Registered: SEP 2000
posted 04-06-2001 02:05 PM
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My eyes hurt, I've been searching for a site about HESH rounds and all I found were breif mentions, on the plus side I found this site about anti-armor weapons:
http://www.wargamer.org/GvA/weapons/introduction.html




HMTD Factory
Frequent Poster
Posts: 225
From:
Registered: FEB 2001
posted 04-07-2001 01:44 AM
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If HESH doesn't return good results when you search, try "HEP", it might give additional help since HESH and HEP are same thing with different names.
HEP stands for "High Explosive Plastic".