Fragmentation (weaponry)

This article is about casing fragmentation of explosive weaponry. For the internally held projectiles delivered by anti-personnel artillery, see Shrapnel shell.

Grooved body of a Second World War-era U.S. Mk 2 grenade. The grooves covering the exterior of the grenade are used to aid in the gripping of the grenade when throwing.
Diagram of S-mine in the delivery of steel ball fragments

Fragmentation is the process by which the casing, shot, or other components of an anti-personnel weapon, bomb, barrel bomb, land mine, IED, artillery, mortar, tank gun, autocannon shell, rocket, missile, grenade, etc. are dispersed and/or shattered by the detonation of the explosive filler.

The correct term for those pieces is "fragments” (nicknamed “splinters” or “shards”).[1] Preformed fragments can be of various shapes (spheres, cubes, rods, etc.) and sizes and are normally held rigidly within some form of matrix or body until the high explosive (HE) filling is detonated. The resulting high-velocity fragments produced by either method are the main lethal mechanisms of these weapons, rather than the heat or overpressure caused by detonation, although offensive grenades are often constructed without a frag matrix.[citation needed]

The casing pieces are often incorrectly referred to as "shrapnel", particularly by non-military media sources.[1][2][3]

  1. ^ a b Fawcett, Kirstin (20 February 2020). "The Difference Between 'Shell Fragments' and 'Shrapnel'". HistoryNet. Retrieved 23 March 2024.
  2. ^ Cite error: The named reference shrapneldef was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  3. ^ [1] Archived 1 February 2014 at the Wayback Machine [2] Examples of use of "shrapnel" for casing fragments