AB HGr Swedish Jumping Grenade
Sweden chose the design of the Rheinmetall grenade as the next generation of its air blast hand grenades designed to destroy enemy personnel in shelters within a radius of up to five meters. The reasons for the acquisition by Sweden of an air blast hand grenade (Air Burst Hand Grenade, AB HGr) were quite simply explained by Ian Kinley, head of the special ammunition development and production program at the Swedish Ministry of Defense: "We realized that a conventional frag grenade has a serious disadvantage which consists in its very low probability of hitting the target. It has a spherical shape of the spread of fragments. Exploding on the ground, half the fragments of a grenade flies into the air while the other half goes into the ground not its ability to hit military targets. And a few fragments - only a few, will scatter at the surface level and only they lead to the expected effect. "This effect can be eliminated by setting small obstacles. Kinley added: "We realized that we needed a hand grenade capable of hitting targets behind obstacles having the same height as the targets themselves. This new hand grenade is capable of striking enemy enemy personnel with Kevlar body armor and the like within a radius of 4-5 meters" .
As a result, in 2010, the Swedish Ministry of Defense signed the Rheinmetall Waffe Munitions ARGES contract for the production of AB HGr grenades. The final qualification took place in March, and the first serial deliveries began at the end of 2011.
Kinley said: "This grenade looks like an ordinary hand grenade and should be treated like a normal hand grenade. You throw them just like ordinary grenades." However, this is where the similarities end. He continued: “These grenades roll over the ground and, when fully stopped, self-erect, jump to 1.5-2 meters and explode. The effect of an air explosion allows you to hit targets behind obstacles. In addition, from this point, the target is a large surface that provides a higher the probability of its defeat. In addition to the above, there is another trick: when a hand grenade bounces off the ground, we know for sure its orientation. At the moment of an explosion in the air in the upper part of its trajectory, knowing where its top and bottom are, SOM us to create a design, directing all the pieces down in the most favorable direction. This allows for a higher density of the fragments, which led to an increase in the probability of hitting the target. "
The more fragments directed in the desired direction, the less risk for a grenade thrower, as well as less risk for the civilian population. Another feature of the design that increases safety factors is the use of fragments with aerodynamic drag. Such fragments scattering beyond the limits of the target area for a radius of 4-5 meters and effective in this zone even against body armor, rapidly reduce their speed, becoming practically harmless already at a distance of 30 meters. Grenade AB HGr also has a small upper fragmentation cone.
The user can turn this grenade into a regular one by first removing the screw plug. The AB HGr grenade is used in the same way as any other hand grenade with a check and a trigger lever, a pyrotechnic fuse with three delay systems.
The grenade has a special conical shape of the body that guides the fragments down the conical shape of the dispersion, thus providing a close safety distance.
In tests in accordance with the STANAG 4190 standard, an AB HGr grenade was detonated at an altitude of 2-meters and a distance of 2-x and 4-meters from a control frame measuring one square meter covered with a Kevlar vest. The tests showed the failure of the 1 level of the first target and the level of the 0.96 target at a distance of 4 meters. Disabling the 0.9 level is considered a heavy level of damage sufficient for incapacitating a target.
In tests when a grenade exploded at an altitude of 1.5 meters, 98 percent of all fragments were found within a radius of 5 meters from the explosion, and the remaining two percent were in the 5-10 meters range; no fragments were found outside this zone.
In the safety tests, in which the fragments were aimed at a target measuring two square meters at a distance of 30 meters, there was not a single penetration of aluminum sheet 0.8 millimeters thick.
As part of the update on the hand grenade arsenal, Sweden also acquired the newly developed RHEINMETALL 08 Extensible Hand Grenade (Expandable Hand Grenade 08, EHGR 08). The offensive grenade EHGR 08 was developed by Rheinmetall to destroy bunkers and caves. It consists of a main fuse connected then with three charges. One charge provides overpressure in 0.9 kg / cm2 (13 psi), two charges in 1.2 kg / cm2 (17psi) and three in 2 kg / cm (28 psi).
The company has also developed a disruptive charge for the same architecture to interrupt structural elements. It can be installed on the target by means of magnets or adhesive tape. He is able to make a hole with a diameter of 30 mm in steel 15 mm thick.
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