Reply #40: Thanks for the Wiki link. I only followed the one . . [View All]

[msmcghee]

. . supplied by HRW. The Wiki fills in some blanks.

However, neither article talked about armor penetration. The "dense inert metel" consists of small particles of metal that don't explode with the detonation but that are mixed in with the explosive charge. This is to give more force to the blast wave. (Standard explosives become very small particles so that they are effectively just more expanding gas in the explosion.)

As I understand the explanation here, the inert metal is provided to remain in a small but slightly larger particle size that pushes more air in the blast wave to create a higher pressure in blast wave to increase the lethality.

The casing of the missile and explosive charge is carbon fiber which reduces to small lightweight pieces when the explosive is detonated. The purpose of the DIME weapon is to kill people in a small radius from impact but not damage equipment in that vicinity.

The purpose of the DIME is to do minimal or no collateral damage - hence the attempt to create no shrapnel at all. The lethality is due to the blast pressure wave alone - which dissipates according to the cube of the distance from detonation. (The difference in pressure from 1 ft to 4 ft from the center is 1/27. The pressure at 8 ft is about 1/350 of the pressure at 1 ft.) So it is lethal only within a few feet and it does not produce shrapnel at all.

If a DIME munition as described here was used on those ambulances - I would wonder what caused the numerous shrapnel holes in the roof of the ambulance. I would also wonder how a missile casing of carbon fibre designed to disintegrate when exploded could travel through a roof, leg, a gurney, a floor and then create a clean hole through several inches of pavement - and then disappear.

I would also wonder why they needed to use the DIME technology here. Did they not want to damage the ambulance for some reason? Of course the ambulance was damaged - by shrapnel (or something made to look like shrapnel.)

It just doesn't make sense so far.