Patent ID: 8061275

Claim:
A fragmenting warhead wherein fragment sizes can be preselected, comprising a cylindrical body with preselected fragmentation patterns, wherein the cylindrical body comprises a within cylindrical steel pusher shell, said pusher shell further comprising a cylindrical main explosive charge; and wherein the cylindrical body comprises tungsten alloy fragments of preselected small and large sizes wherein the small fragments are bonded together and sintered into large fragments and the large fragments are then arranged in preselected patterns which are bonded, pressed then sintered into the desired cylindrical body shape; and wherein the bonds between large sized fragments can melt at a lower temperature than the bonds between small sized fragments; and, wherein the immediate interior of the cylindrical body is lined with propellant and wherein there is a thermal insulation device in between the propellant and the said steel pusher shell to prevent detonation of the propellant from in turn setting off the main explosive charge, and wherein ignition of the propellant essentially will cause a heating of the cylindrical body, which causes melting of bonds between the large fragments initially, which then is followed by a closely timed eventual detonation of the main explosive charge to cause detonation energy to propagate directly to the interior of the cylindrical body causing the cylindrical body to shear and break essentially only into fragments with controlled large fragment sizes and large size fragmentation patterns.