page_title: Smoke grenade
section_title: Use
hierarchical_section_title: Smoke grenade / Use
caption_attribution_description: English: A student in the Air Mobility Warfare Center's Advanced Contingency Skills Training Course 06-5 at Fort Dix, N.J., deploys smoke during a training session at a tactical range there Sept. 18. More than 60 Airmen are participating in the training course, learning numerous combat-related skills including tactics, media skills, convoy operations, first aid, and field craft. The course is taught by the AMWC's 421st Combat Training Squadron. (U.S. Air Force photo/Tech. Sgt. Scott T. Sturkol)
context_page_description: A smoke grenade is a canister-type grenade used as a signaling device, target or landing zone marking device, or as a screening device for unit movements.
  Smoke grenades generally emit a far larger amount of smoke than smoke bombs, which are a type of fireworks typically started with an external fuse rather than a pin and are more complex. Smoke grenades often cost around US$40 compared to smoke bombs, which can often cost just a few cents. The phrase "to smoke", meaning to fake, bluff, or beat around the bush, comes from the military usage of smoke grenades to obscure and conceal movement.
context_section_description: Smoke grenades are used for several purposes. The primary use is the creation of smoke screens for concealment and the signaling of aircraft.
  If movement (such as flanking maneuvers or retreat) is necessary, smoke grenades can be thrown prior to movement in order to provide a wall of visual distraction that reduces the accuracy of enemy fire and temporarily deceives them as to the force's location. The most common color for concealment smoke is white or grey. With the advent of infrared imaging goggles which can spot troop movements through smoke screens, the newest smoke compositions now include a "multi-spectrum" component to make them IR impermeable.
  Smoke grenades can also be used to signal aircraft. Since locating a target from above (especially in thick forest canopy) can be nearly impossible, even with good radio contact, colored smoke grenades are often used to allow aircraft to spot them. Colored signaling smoke grenades are widely used in CASEVAC and close air support situations where quickly locating friendly ground forces is of paramount importance. Common colors are red, yellow, green and purple, and all use very brightly colored dyes to increase the likelihood of being spotted from above.
caption: A violet signaling smoke grenade being used during a military training exercise
exif: {"Image ImageWidth": "2918", "Image ImageLength": "2100", "Image BitsPerSample": "[8, 8, 8]", "Image PhotometricInterpretation": "2", "Image ImageDescription": "A student in the Air Mobility Warfare Center's Advanced Contingency Skills Training Course 06-5 at Fort Dix, N.J., deploys smoke during a training session at a tactical range there Sept. 18. More than 60 Airmen are participating in the training course, learning numerous combat-related skills including tactics, media skills, convoy operations, first aid, and field craft. The course is taught by the AMWC's 421st Combat Training Squadron.  (U.S. Air Force photo/Tech. Sgt. Scott T. Sturkol)", "Image Make": "NIKON CORPORATION", "Image Model": "NIKON D70s", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image SamplesPerPixel": "3", "Image XResolution": "300", "Image YResolution": "300", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Adobe Photoshop CS6 (Windows)", "Image DateTime": "2017:11:24 12:38:08", "Image Artist": "TSgt Scott T. Sturkol", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Co-sited", "Image ExifOffset": "836", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "1570", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "9177", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/400", "EXIF FNumber": "9/2", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Aperture Priority", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0221", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2006:09:18 15:48:46", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2006:09:18 15:48:46", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF CompressedBitsPerPixel": "2", "EXIF ShutterSpeedValue": "540241/62500", "EXIF ApertureValue": "86797/20000", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "43/10", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Pattern", "EXIF LightSource": "Unknown", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire", "EXIF FocalLength": "70", "EXIF SubSecTime": "10", "EXIF SubSecTimeOriginal": "10", "EXIF SubSecTimeDigitized": "10", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "2823", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "1999", "EXIF SensingMethod": "One-chip color area", "EXIF FileSource": "Digital Camera", "EXIF SceneType": "Directly Photographed", "EXIF CVAPattern": "[0, 2, 0, 2, 2, 1, 1, 0]", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Normal", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Auto", "EXIF DigitalZoomRatio": "1", "EXIF FocalLengthIn35mmFilm": "105", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard", "EXIF GainControl": "None", "EXIF Contrast": "Normal", "EXIF Saturation": "Normal", "EXIF Sharpness": "Normal", "EXIF SubjectDistanceRange": "0"}