Shaped charge

A shaped charge uses a hollow cavity lined with metal to form a high-velocity jet when an explosive detonates, enabling penetration of armor and other materials.

Munroe effect: The concentration of an explosive’s effect by a cavity in its charge. It names the cavity-driven focusing that underlies shaped-charge action.
High explosive: An explosive that detonates rapidly, producing high pressure and a shock wave. Its detonation supplies the pressure that deforms the liner.
Max von Foerster: A German mining engineer associated with early nineteenth-century experiments on hollow explosive charges. His experiments helped establish that a cavity could focus an explosive’s action.
Anti-tank warhead: A munition designed to defeat armored vehicles, often using a shaped charge. The shaped charge became a standard way to achieve armor penetration without high impact speed.
Kinetic energy penetrator: A dense projectile that penetrates armor primarily through momentum and kinetic energy. Unlike a shaped-charge jet, it depends on impact velocity and projectile mass.
Detonation: A supersonic chemical reaction that propagates through an explosive and releases energy. A detonation drives the liner’s collapse and jet formation.
Metal jet: A fast, elongated stream of metal formed when a liner collapses under pressure. This is the principal penetrator produced by many shaped charges.
Franz von Baader: A German engineer and philosopher who described the focusing effects of hollow explosive charges in 1792. His early account predates practical shaped-charge weapons.
Explosive reactive armor: Armor that uses an explosive layer to disrupt incoming shaped-charge jets. It counters shaped charges by disrupting the jet during penetration.
Squash head: An anti-armor munition that spreads explosive against a target before detonation to induce spalling. It damages armor through shock and spall rather than a focused metal jet.

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