An airburst round is a type of tactical

anti-personnel An anti-personnel weapon is a weapon primarily used to maim or kill infantry and other personnel not behind armor, as opposed to attacking structures or vehicles, or hunting game. The development of defensive fortification and combat vehicles gav ...

and

anti-aircraft Anti-aircraft warfare (AAW) is the counter to aerial warfare and includes "all measures designed to nullify or reduce the effectiveness of hostile air action".AAP-6 It encompasses surface-based, subsurface ( submarine-launched), and air-ba ...

explosive ammunition, typically a

shell Shell may refer to: Architecture and design * Shell (structure), a thin structure ** Concrete shell, a thin shell of concrete, usually with no interior columns or exterior buttresses Science Biology * Seashell, a hard outer layer of a marine ani ...

grenade A grenade is a small explosive weapon typically thrown by hand (also called hand grenade), but can also refer to a Shell (projectile), shell (explosive projectile) shot from the muzzle of a rifle (as a rifle grenade) or a grenade launcher. A mod ...

, that

detonate Detonation () is a type of combustion involving a supersonic exothermic front accelerating through a medium that eventually drives a shock front propagating directly in front of it. Detonations propagate supersonically through shock waves wit ...

s in midair, causing

air burst An air burst or airburst is the detonation of an explosive device such as an anti-personnel artillery shell or a nuclear weapon in the air instead of on contact with the ground or target. The principal military advantage of an air burst over ...

effect fragment damage to enemy personnel or aircraft (notably comparably unsophisticated unmanned aircraft systems such as modified racing drones). In the latter case, airburst rounds are used in anti-aircraft or "zenith" cannon, known in military slang as FLAK (from the German "fliegerabwehrkanone", ''air defence cannon'') or ack-ack (from the British phonetic alphabet, as an initialism for Anti Air). This makes it easier to hit enemy soldiers behind a wall, in a

defensive fighting position A defensive fighting position is a type of Earthworks (engineering)#Military use, earthwork constructed in a military context, generally large enough to accommodate anything from one soldier to a fire team (or similar sized unit). Terminology ...

, or in a confined space or room. It is used on many

gun A gun is a device that Propulsion, propels a projectile using pressure or explosive force. The projectiles are typically solid, but can also be pressurized liquid (e.g. in water guns or water cannon, cannons), or gas (e.g. light-gas gun). So ...

s, from

artillery Artillery consists of ranged weapons that launch Ammunition, munitions far beyond the range and power of infantry firearms. Early artillery development focused on the ability to breach defensive walls and fortifications during sieges, and l ...

to the hand-held XM25 Individual Airburst Weapon System (derived from the XM29 OICW). Unlike traditional grenades, such as the

40 mm grenade This is a general collection of the world's many types of ammunition for grenade launchers in caliber. Several countries have developed or adopted grenade launchers in 40 mm caliber. NATO NATO currently uses three standardized 40 mm grenad ...

, smart grenades can be electronically programmed to explode after travelling a certain distance. A fire control computer or some other electronic sighting system is used to quickly program the electronic fuse with any distance, as conditions dictate.

Orbital ATK Orbital ATK Inc. was an American aerospace manufacturer and defense industry company. It was formed in February 9, 2015 from the merger of Orbital Sciences Corporation and parts of Alliant Techsystems (ATK). Orbital ATK designed, built, and de ...

developed 30x173mm Mk310 PABM-T airburst rounds for

Mk44 Bushmaster II The Mk44 Bushmaster II is a 30 mm chain gun manufactured by Northrop Grumman. It is a derivative of the 25 mm M242 Bushmaster, and uses 70% of the same parts as the M242 while increasing the firepower by as much as 50% with the 20% increas ...

Terminology

It is also called an airburst shell, air burst grenade, programmable ammunition, 3P ammunition or smart grenade.

List of airburst round platforms

* 20 mm grenade ** XM29 OICW ** Daewoo K11 ** QTS-11 * 25 mm grenade: ** XM25 Individual Airburst Weapon System ** XM307 Advanced Crew Served Weapon ** Barrett XM109 * 30 mm ** Shipunov 2A42 **2A72 **

** Rheinmetall MK30-2/ABM ** Rheinmetall Wotan 30 ABM ** Rheinmetall KCE30 * 35 mm ** PAPOP ** Norinco QLU-11 **Rheinmetall Wotan 35 ABM **

Skyshield Skyshield air-defence system is a Modularity, modular, light weight, short range air defense (SHORAD) system developed by the Swiss corporation Oerlikon Contraves (now a subsidiary of Rheinmetall of Germany). The successor to the Oerlikon 35 m ...

; Skynex * 40 mm ** Bofors 40 mm gun ** Mk 47 Striker ** Multi Caliber Individual Weapon System ** Norinco LG5 **K40 ** 40mm CTA ** Atom 40 mm *57 mm ** AU-220M * 84 mm ** Carl Gustaf 8.4cm recoilless rifle * 125 mm grenade ** M-84AS1

External media

Video showing effects of 40mm programmable airburst ammunition

References

Grenades Ammunition {{Ammo-stub