Mike ‘Garand Flanel Daddy THE Thumb Haleysan’ Jones has another video out. This time covering the 40mm LV at short range.
For those of you unaware, the munitions designed in the US for our troops have a lot of thought put into them. I mean a lot of thought. One of those things is a minimum safe arming distance for the low velocity 40mm grenades launched out of the under barrel grenade launcher.
There are also safe arming distances for high velocity 40mm, it’s the same process using the rifling to achieve a lock of the safety that works as the projectile is spinning through the air. The rifling and the velocity deactivate the internal safeties with centrifugal force. It’s very clever actually and one of the ways we use energy in the munitions that was otherwise doing nothing to achieve an additional positive result.
Here, Garand Thumb is showing the still significant impact of an unarmed 40mm. It is still dangerous, that is still a high explosive, but the safety only connects and arms the explosive after 14-28m. Kinda like a 4 second grenade fuse is 4 seconds-ish the distance is relative and based on the grenade overcoming the physical properties on a generalized basis.
So, will a 40mm mess you up? Absolutely, but since we don’t want a negligently fired grenade to take out troops en masse or one fired that the tube didn’t clear a close obstacle, the arming safeties are in place. This isn’t true in many foreign munitions.
Many munitions in other less developed nations, or developed in parts of the world that supply other parts of the world that aren’t… shall we say… the friendliest? Those munitions are generally only built to do one thing, work when activated. The safety of the users is secondary if brought into consideration at all. Russian munitions often have safeties as well, but many are more mundane and rely on the user to not be a total incompetent. With mixed results.
The professional military mindset that evolved from WWII through modern day has emphasis on safety because troop safety is a direct part of logistical readiness to win the war. It is, ultimately, a selfish consideration because keeping your manpower safe (within reason, troops in war get shot at and stuff) is the most efficient way to keep soldiers soldiering.
