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120 mm submunition bomb `Espin'
Region
Spain
Category
Ammunition, Missiles and precision weapons
Armament EXPAL and other 120 mm smoothbore mortars. Development Developed by Ecia in 1986 to provide an anti-armour capability for 120 mm mortars. Description This bomb has a cylindrical body, curved ogive with time fuze, tailcone and a light-alloy tailboom and fins. The usual type of primary cartridge fits into the tailboom and the secondary charges fit around the boom ahead of the fins. The payload consists of 21 submunitions, each containing a shaped charge and an impact fuze in a steel casing which provides
anti-personnel fragments; a stabilising tape is attached to each submunition. They are packed around a central tube, above an expelling charge. When the time fuze functions, the expelling charge is fired, blows off the ogive from the bomb and then ejects the submunitions. The stabilising tapes ensure that they fall vertically. On impact they can penetrate 150 mm of steel and generate about 650 fragments. Each submunition has a lethal radius of 8 m; the area covered by the 21 submunitions varies according to the height at which deployment takes place and can be as much as 4,000 m 2 . Manufacturer Esperanza y Cia.