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Specific Details
The rocket warhead is based on the M72 law, and the functioning grenade component is generally identical to it in function. Although the original grenades had 76-84mm warheads, on account of the rifle grenades potential to be much larger without the restriction of a launching tube, the need to produce completely different warhead designs lead to the use of warheads very similar to the M72 LAW instead, and adapted to the rifle grenade. The warheads are 66mm in diameter, and newer variants of these HE warheads can penetrate up to 16 inches of steel, 32 inches of concrete, or over 40 inches of dirt, utilize a tandem warhead to predetonate explosive reactive armor and defeat spaced armor threats, and possess secondary anti-armor effects similar to the AT4 rocket designed to stun or incapacitate enemy soldiers after penetrating armor or bunkers, as well as thermobaric effects. Armor piercing shape charge jets work by concentrating metal cones in to a single semi-fluid stream of high velocity metal, that are range dependent, and are designed to concentrate the force of the blast in to a single spot, allowing it to punch small holes in the armor. However, these holes are often very small, and without hitting an important component of the armor directly, can over penetrate and do little real damage to the vehicle. There are times when vehicles have been struck multiple times by shaped charge warheads and despite superficial damage to the vehicle, no crewmembers inside were killed and no important components were damaged. Modern warheads provide secondary “after-armor effects”, damage that will be done to the inside of the armor after rounds penetrate. This can be likened to using a hollowpoint round that fragments and expands in soft tissue, or slashing across a person instead of just stabbing them to cause more internal damage. The rounds are more likely to actually cause damage to the vehicle and kill crew members, both by flashbang and incendiary effects designed to stun or ignite flammable materials such as fuel, exposed wires and ammunition (leading to sympathetic detonations), but also thermobaric effects which can directly create overpressure waves that, especially in small spaces such as vehicles or bunkers, kill the targets both by shock, flame, and by sucking up the oxygen. Thermbaric weapons can even suck air out of people's lungs, leading to their lungs collapsing.

After penetrating armor, small fuel d roplets combined with nano-particles of aluminum powder flood the interior of the vehicle or container, and then ignite, filling every nook and cranny of the target before detonating. This results in a large explosion inside of the target and generates and ovepressure wave in excess of 300 G's, more than sufficient to kill or severely injure a person, over the 100 G limit. Thermobaric weapons also in general have 5-10 times the energy content of most explosives such as TNT or RDX, with the energy density of aluminum being approximately 30 megajoules per kilogram vs. 4-5 for TNT, RDX and most other explosives. The reason for this is in part due to these substances utilizing the air to burn, therefore increasing their energy density, and a higher energy content in general. These explosives for their size are substantially more powerful, and thus can create larger explosions and shock effects for their size. Being a liquid and powdered explosive that disperses before detonation as well, it can also fill in hard to reach areas normal explosives would not, allowing it to fill a container before the explosion guaranteeing an equal spread of the shock effects. By using oxygen to burn, it also can suck out the oxygen of an enclosed container and creates a secondary vacuum effect, capable of sucking the air out of an individuals lungs. Although the effects of this are often exaggerated, in enclosed spaces, particularly with poor ventilation, it is possible to kill enemy soldiers through suffocation. This can in part replace the effect of napalm, without the prolonged burning that can cause intense pain, or secondary fires, a reason why napalm is often avoided in modern conflicts.

Tandem warhead
The grenade utilizes a tandem shaped charge warhead, which means it uses a smaller shaped charge warhead to blast a hole through outer armor and detonate explosive reactive armor, improving the second warheads penetration. Mechanisms designed to defeat shaped charge weapons are common on modern armored vehicles, such as SLAT armor, spaced armor and various forms of reactive armor, all designed to disrupt, defuse, or even stop the shaped charge warhead. By utilizing a tandem warhead, the warhead is capable of defeating this outer layer of armor, either by punching a hole in it large enough for the second warhead to travel through, preparing the armor for the second hit by shattering ceramic or detonating explosive reactive tiles, or just by weakening the armor. Spaced armor works by increasing the stand-off distance of shaped charge warheads, as there is an optimal distance needed for the shaped charge warhead to detonate, as well as disrupting the shaped charge jet, while explosive reactive armor disrupts and disperses incoming rounds and countering it's energy. Ceramic and passive reactive armor works by sending much of the energy of the incoming shaped charge back at itself, amplifying the defensive effect based on how powerful the jet is. By destroying this armor before the main warhead hits, it improves the chances of this warhead against this type of armor.

Tandem warheads represent a kind of “arms-race” technology, where counters to shaped charge and squash warheads are countered by the weapon itself creating a means to defeat these counters. Counters to these counters also exist, resulting in multi-tandem warheads, sometimes with 2 or even 3 warheads. Some warheads even use two identically sized warheads, such as the AGM-114 hellfire missile. The tandem warhead in the grenade works more like the javelin in that it utilizes one smaller but still quite large warhead, and then a second much larger one, resulting in an asymmetric warhead twin warhead design. This makes the first tandem charge more barrier blind, and instead of needing two or three small tandem warheads it uses one large one, designed to specifically defeat barriers while the second one is designed to defeat thick armor. This makes the round more barrier-blind, as it is more likely to ignore defensive countermeasures of enemy armor systems. It also is slightly hardened and launches flares after it gets close to the target, designed to confuse active armor systems.


Electro-optical fuse and air-bursting function
The grenades utilize an electroptical fuse similar to the RAW grenade, which allows the grenade to detonate a distance from the target. While the grenades can be programmed to detonate in mid-air, similar to the air-bursting 25mm grenades, it also will detonate without being programmed to, simply exploding before it hits the target. Detonating without requiring contact with the target solves a number of problems. First, the fragmentation dispersion is wider, as the ground does not absorb the shock or shrapnel of the grenade, creating a wider area of effect that is also more likely to hit entrenched targets that would be protected from these rounds. U.S. Military testing found that in general it had 300% effectiveness against most targets, but against entrenched targets could often hit them while other rounds simply would fail to destroy them at all. Secondly, shaped charged warheads require a particular stand off distance to optimally penetrate armor. A round which detonates on contact with a target might reduce it's armor penetration potential by over half the amount, removing a warheads ability to defeat the armor of a target it's up against. This could for example reduce the armor penetration from 16 inches to below 8 inches, removing it's ability to defeat a T-72 tank, especially at an angle. By detonating the proper distance from the target, which is generally a few feet depending on the warhead, the warhead can detonate at it's optimal range, thereby improving armor penetration without the need for a long nose cose, which would make the grenade much larger, heavier, and less aerodynamic. By not relying on impact against the target, the round is more barrier blind, and can detonate even if coming at the target at weird angles or hitting a soft target. Soft sand, snow, or angled armor is known to defeat contact based warheads, and certain types of armor are designed to crush, destroy or otherwise defuse the fuse of an incoming warhead. By using an electroptical fuse, the rounds are capable of detonating without having to physically hit the target, meaning if it hits a target that might destroy the warhead or that might not detonate it, it will detonate anyways.

The fuse works similar to radar or flak rounds from WWII, by sending out visible and infrared light to a target. This light of a certain spectrum bounces off the target and is picked up by a light sensitive receiver on the weapon. When it detects the light is at a certain strength, it detonates, indicating it is a certain distance away. While it uses both visible and infrared light, lighting conditions are not particularly important for the fuse; it merely needs to sense a certain frequency of light at a certain strength to detonate. The warheads can work in total darkness or when it is bright outside, as it relies on particular kinds of light in order to operate. This type of fuse is used due to it being cheap to produce and working against a broader range of targets than flak rounds like used in WWII, which would often times not detonate on wood or various other types of material that did not reflect radar or were not magnetic. In this way it is more consistent in it's operation, and can see through some types of barriers by emitting a powerful enough flash of light, such as tree leaves or thin barriers. Infrared in particular can see through smoke or fog, and thin sheet metal, allowing it to sense the more ideal location it should detonate. Despite the relatively complex features it offers to the weapon, it is a simple fuse design, and reliable, working on a broad range of targets.

Alternatively, using a laser range finder, the grenade can be programmed to detonate at a certain location. The laser is used to find the distance to the intended target, and then a timer is used to calculate how long the grenade takes to reach the target before air-bursting. When the grenade reaches that particular time, it explodes, allowing it to airburst at a more ideal location. This allows for precision airbursting munitions, which can be more accurately placed where the user wants them. If the enemy is hiding inside of a trench, foxhole, or behind a barrier such a sandbag emplacement or tree, the grenade can detonate in a spot where the fragmentation is more likely to hit them and is not obstructed by the barrier. In the past it would take several rounds to land a lucky hit inside or adjacent to the target, and certain conditions might make hitting the target impossible entirely, but with programmable air-bursting features it can be utilized to guarantee a hit 90% of the time against these otherwise hard-to-reach targets. These features are similar to the air-bursting grenades of the XM25 grenade launcher, although the mechanism of action is different as the rifle grenades do not rotate in flight very much, as this would decrease armor penetration.

The electroptical fuse is electronic and therefore vulnerable to passive “soft-kill” active defense systems. However, because it detonates some distance from the intended target, potentially outside of the active defense systems interception range, and because it has some EMP resistance, it is much harder to defeat in general. The round is also hardened to some extent against hardkill systems, having a stronger external housing than many explosives, has a simpler more fool proof detonator which is harder to destroy, and the fuse when it detects it is close to the target but not yet within range, deploys flares and chaff to disorient, overwhelm and confuse the active defense system targeting systems. When the Rifle grenade is close to the target but still not within prime detonation range, it launches decoys to confuse sensors meant to shoot down or intercept anti-rank rounds, making it harder to take down. The round also takes slightly erratic movement patterns right before engagement, making it harder to intercept. The rifle grenade can also detect what angle the incoming target is, and steer itself towards the target so it is more likely to hit at a 90 degree angle, which will improve armor penetration. The Grenade can sense when it is close to a target and begin taking measures to improve hit probability, rather than just right before it hits. These smart grenade features can be used to track targets more effectively as well, and be more likely to hit important components of armored vehicles, but is limited in scope given the cheaper electronic system the grenade utilizes. All of these features help to improve hit and kill probabilities against the vehicle.



Rocket propulsion
Like the RAW grenade, the rocket design eliminates many of the early problems with rifle grenades. Early rifle grenades used the force of the bullet or blank cartridge to propel them which resulted in a number of issues. First, time would have to be taken out to swap to blanks without bullets if these versions were used, and these blanks would often have to be custom designed to be used with the weapon. Although shoot through and bullet trap rifle grenades were used a well, all of these methods produces large amounts of shock and force on the rifle, and pushed gas back down the barrel resulting in high gas pressures in the weapon, resulting in both damage to the weapon and excessive recoil to the user. Further while grenades could be propelled a surprisingly long distance, they were still shorter than many rocket launchers and could be quite short with weaker weapons, such as assault rifles which were later adopted. To solve this issue rocket assisted rifle grenades were later developed, and eventually rocket only designs. Instead of using a bullet to propel the grenade at all, the grenade utilizes a rocket, and only needs a small bursting charge to be propelled 10 feet off the barrel before activating. This eliminates the need for switching to a different type of round, and removes all the recoil and back pressure inside of the rifle, protecting it and the user. It also eliminates any blackblast or shock, and reduces the signature in the origin, making the weapon easier and safer to fire, as well as it being harder to notice the user. In case a user accidentally fires a round, the weapon has a bullet trap that will be activated when hit by a bullet, and that will not pierce the rocket. Because it is an electrically ignited grenade, a bullet is unlikely to set it off, as well.

The weapon utilizes a two stage rocket, one to propel the grenade initially and the other to keep it going, being more energy efficient. This air-burning rocket utilizes a small rocket engine, which is more fuel efficient and uses oxygen from the air to burn, cutting down on 2/3rds of the fuel weight. The rocket is also more powerful, capable of generating higher velocities than the standard aluminum rocket. The rocket utilizes RP-1 fuel, essentially highly refined jet fuel, and is similar to a scramjet or ramjet engine, but is much simpler and cheaper. The rocket's improved efficiency means it can be faster and have a longer range than a standard rocket launcher like the M72 LAW, giving it a relatively flat trajectory out to 600 meters. Afterwards the rocket begins to slow down and eventually burn out, making the trajectory more curved. Although when angled at a 45 degree angle the rocket can reach out to 1600 meters, it is difficult for it to hit targets out to this range and it's maximum effective range is generally considered to be 1100 meters, while it's effective range is 600 meters. This is longer than a standard AT4 or m72 law, in large part due to a lack of a need for a launching tube which's black-blast prohibits both more powerful rockets and angling the weapon. In comparison to an M72 LAW, the airburning rocket allows the grenade to be lighterweight, have less backblast than, and fired at more ideal angles than a standard tubed rocket launcher, while also not giving away the soldier's position due to signature reduction. The more fuel efficient and slower burning rocket also has a flatter trajectory and longer range, thereby improving it's overall capabilities. Each grenade is meant to replace a standard hand grenade for it's given size, and provide for far greater capabilities such as armor penetration. Yet it is capable of being used at long ranges, dramatically improving it's overall effectiveness. It is not uncommon for soldiers to use these rounds to initiate an ambush, as their firepower is quite dramatic. When every soldier in a squad is armed with more than 6 of these, a large volume of rockets can be quickly fired at the enemy, overwhelming them. The rocket design is critical to reducing both the weight, recoil, and gas pressure of the weapon, making it more viable. Modern versions of the grenade can even use 3-D printed or machine technology rockets, which are cheaper and more sophisticated than the previous rocket designs, improve it's capabilities further. The original RAW grenade at approximately 7 pounds could travel 300 meters almost completely flat, and this grenade being lighter and with a more modern rocket can extend that out to 600 meters.