A small insight into the world of ammunition, explosives, rockets, missiles, artillery, mortars, mines etc.
Posted: Thu Jun 28, 2018 1:12 pm
As some of you know, I’m a former frontline Combat Engineer, served in Afghanistan and later went on to becoming EOD (Explosive Ordnance Disposal) personal.
So, since some of you are interested in warfare, ammunition etc. I figured I might be able to give a bit of insight into the world of ammunition – small and large calibers, explosives, rockets, missiles, artillery, mortars, mines etc. Even colour schemes.
Bare in mind it’s been a while since I worked with it so, it might take me a min to find the right information again, and everything might not be accurate anymore since I go off old notes and memory.
Happy reading.
First off
Let’s get the term rocket and missile out of the way. Since I’ve heard the use of both for the wrong ordinance.
Rocket
Secondly
Let’s talk about colour. Yeah I know it might not sound important but trust me it is.
(I almost convinced a British infantry to fire a golden 30 mm HE grenade from his gun, which he refused in the end. Good choice since it could have destroyed his gun. Golden 30 mm HE grenades are meant for the grenade launchers, and therefore have a larger velocity which equals a bigger fire mechanism.)
So, every country paints their ammunition. This is firstly to protect it and secondly to mark what the hell it is. These colours date back to the USSR time period. So not very accurate for Post Scriptum.
NATO (which 99% here are part of) uses two different systems, above and below 20 mm.
NATO colour (solid or in bands) for ammunition below caliber 20 mm:
Colour & Meaning:
Colour & Meaning:
USA
Then there’s the mighty USA. They are still using their own colour scheme, but it’s somewhat similar to the NATO Standard so I’m not going to list that (can do if you want it). On American 12.7 mm ammunition (heavy 50.cal) the tip is marked with the colour. So, a black tipped 12.7 is Panzer rounds. There are many variations of 12.7 mm rounds, some very evil once in the mix as well.
Russia
Then there’s the mighty Russia. This is a different system as you might imagine, combining colours and Cyrillic letters. Which all can be combined in different ways with nose-colours, colour bands and letters. All good fun when you’re looking at a 50 years old Russian bomb. The Russian base colour is always grey or green.
Letter & Meaning:
And now for Russian bombs (A whole new set of colours and letters yay!)
Nose Colour + Bands on the body + Letters = Meaning:
So, since some of you are interested in warfare, ammunition etc. I figured I might be able to give a bit of insight into the world of ammunition – small and large calibers, explosives, rockets, missiles, artillery, mortars, mines etc. Even colour schemes.
Bare in mind it’s been a while since I worked with it so, it might take me a min to find the right information again, and everything might not be accurate anymore since I go off old notes and memory.
Happy reading.
First off
Let’s get the term rocket and missile out of the way. Since I’ve heard the use of both for the wrong ordinance.
Rocket
- Think of it as fire and forget. An RPG – Rocket Propelled Grenade or other similar piezo-HEAT rockets, you fire off and hope to hit (piezo crystals generates electricity when crushed, very dangerous stuff to disarm). You cannot do anything to it after you pulled the trigger, so you better be damn sure to hit. This is why rockets have mixed results vs personals.
- Here you have control. This can still be a piezo-HEAT mechanism but you got control after you fired the missile. Take a TOW-missile, once fired from the launcher, a small copper wire will be connected to the missile for you to guide it to it’s target.
- MLRS – GMLRS are massive missiles guided artillery, that’s guided to their target via GPS. They arm after 30 km (18.6 miles).
- Rocket = fire and forget (RPG). Missiles = Control over, can be guided to its target (TOW)
Secondly
Let’s talk about colour. Yeah I know it might not sound important but trust me it is.
(I almost convinced a British infantry to fire a golden 30 mm HE grenade from his gun, which he refused in the end. Good choice since it could have destroyed his gun. Golden 30 mm HE grenades are meant for the grenade launchers, and therefore have a larger velocity which equals a bigger fire mechanism.)
So, every country paints their ammunition. This is firstly to protect it and secondly to mark what the hell it is. These colours date back to the USSR time period. So not very accurate for Post Scriptum.
NATO (which 99% here are part of) uses two different systems, above and below 20 mm.
NATO colour (solid or in bands) for ammunition below caliber 20 mm:
Colour & Meaning:
- No colour = Sharp projectile (normal rounds like standard 5.56, 7.62 or 12.7)
- Red = Projectile with tracer (often red, blue yellow or green)
- Black = (Anti)Panzer Projectile (Very hard hitting – sometimes under calibrated - will shred personal)
- Silver = (Anti)Panzer Fire Projectile (Same as black just with added phosphor)
- Blue = Fire Projectile (phosphor)
Colour & Meaning:
- Yellow = Includes brisant explosives (high explosive, "big bada boom")
- Brown = Includes non-brisant explosives (boom)
- Grey = Includes chemicals (chemical warfare – often teargas)
- Black = (Anti)Panzer Projectile (tank shells etc.)
- Light Green = Smoke
- Light Red = Fire ammunition (phosphor)
- White = Light (big ball of fire in the air)
- Blue = Practice
USA
Then there’s the mighty USA. They are still using their own colour scheme, but it’s somewhat similar to the NATO Standard so I’m not going to list that (can do if you want it). On American 12.7 mm ammunition (heavy 50.cal) the tip is marked with the colour. So, a black tipped 12.7 is Panzer rounds. There are many variations of 12.7 mm rounds, some very evil once in the mix as well.
Russia
Then there’s the mighty Russia. This is a different system as you might imagine, combining colours and Cyrillic letters. Which all can be combined in different ways with nose-colours, colour bands and letters. All good fun when you’re looking at a 50 years old Russian bomb. The Russian base colour is always grey or green.
Letter & Meaning:
- R = Grenade with tracer
- S = Light Grenade (big ball of fire)
- F = Bricant explosives (high explosive, "big bada boom")
- Kh = Gas (all kinds of funky stuff in those)
- B = (Anti)Panzer grenade
- G = (Anti)Concrete grenade
- D = Smoke
- E = Fire
- O = Flechette grenade (filled with small steel arrows, spread happiness to many)
And now for Russian bombs (A whole new set of colours and letters yay!)
Nose Colour + Bands on the body + Letters = Meaning:
- None + None + FAB = Standard bomb (big or small boom)
- Green + Blue + AO = Flechette bomb
- Green + Green & Blue + AOKh = Cemical bomb with Flechette
- Orange + None + BRAB = Light Panzer bomb
- Blue + None + BETAB = Heavy Panzer bomb
- Blue + Blue + ZAB = Fire bomb
- None + Red + KhAB = Chemical with lingering gas
- Green + Green + KhAB = Chemical with airborne gas
- Green + Yellow & Green + KRAB = Chemical with toxic gas
- White + White + SAB = Light