The BROACH warhead is a
multi-stage warhead developed by Team BROACH;
BAE Systems Global Combat Systems Munitions
BAE Systems Platforms & Services is a wholly owned subsidiary of BAE Systems Inc. and is a large provider of tracked and wheeled armored combat vehicles, naval guns, naval ship repair and modernization, artillery and missile launching systems, ad ...
,
Thales Missile Electronics and
QinetiQ. BROACH stands for ''Bomb Royal Ordnance Augmented CHarge''.
Development of BROACH began in 1991 when Team BROACH consisted of
British Aerospace
British Aerospace plc (BAe) was a British aircraft, munitions and defence-systems manufacturer. Its head office was at Warwick House in the Farnborough Aerospace Centre in Farnborough, Hampshire. Formed in 1977, in 1999 it purchased Marconi ...
RO Defence
BAE Systems Platforms & Services is a wholly owned subsidiary of BAE Systems Inc. and is a large provider of tracked and wheeled armored combat vehicles, naval guns, naval ship repair and modernization, artillery and missile launching systems, a ...
,
Thomson-Thorn Missile Electronics and
DERA
Dera, Dero, Daro, Dhoro, Dahar or Dehra is a word in several languages of South Asia, whose meaning is 'camp', 'mound' or 'settlement'. It appears in the names of a number of places.
Geography India
* Dera, Himachal Pradesh
* Dera Bassi, Moha ...
. The two stage warhead is made up from an initial
shaped charge
A shaped charge is an explosive charge shaped to form an explosively formed penetrator (EFP) to focus the effect of the explosive's energy. Different types of shaped charges are used for various purposes such as cutting and forming metal, ini ...
, which cuts a passage through armour, concrete, earth, etc., allowing a larger following warhead to penetrate inside the target. The weapon is designed to allow a cruise missile to achieve the degree of hard-target penetration formerly only possible by the use of
laser-guided gravity bombs.
Applications
*
Storm Shadow/SCALP EG
*
AGM-154 Joint Standoff Weapon unitary variant (JSOW-C)
* BROACH was evaluated as a possible warhead for the
AGM-86D CALCM but was ultimately not selected.
References
{{Reflist
BAE Systems weapons systems
Explosive weapons
Military equipment introduced in the 1990s