Title and description say it all, really. To test the mettle (and metal) of any welder.
-- AbsintheWithoutLeave, Jan 13 2015

Continuous rod http://en.wikipedia...tinuous-rod_warhead
Dice and slice that target [AbsintheWithoutLeave, Jan 13 2015]

Wasn't someone around here renaming himself with a more manly name? "Wanton Brawn"; things of that sort? "Continuous Rod" should be a consideration.
-- bungston, Jan 13 2015


According to your link, the advantage of the continuous rod comes from the fact that it concentrates the force of the explosion into a 2D plane, resulting in a larger effective radius.

Not that a Hoberman sphere wouldn't be cool...
-- scad mientist, Jan 13 2015


Bangalore Bowling Ball ?
-- FlyingToaster, Jan 13 2015


Hoberman Warhead would be a pretty mean name to change your name to, as well.
-- pocmloc, Jan 13 2015


//the advantage of the continuous rod comes from the fact that it concentrates the force of the explosion into a 2D plane//

Yes, but the bugger of it is that most hostile airforces now use exclusively 3D planes.
-- MaxwellBuchanan, Jan 13 2015


// 3D planes // :)

But seriously, I think we're talking about anti- aircraft munitions here that are proximity triggered. With a spherically expanding munition, a simple proximity fuze would be used when the munition was within range. A continuous rod munition seems like it would have to have a much more sophisticated fuse to see detect when the target was in the plane of destruction. Otherwise concentrating the destruction into a single plane would reduce the chance of actually hitting the target.

Assuming I'm not completely off base above, it seem like the way you'd want to go is to create a mostly 1 dimensional explosion. This would of course need an aiming system as well as a complex trigger, but when the projectile is close to the target, if it can swivel and fire, launching half of its mass in a somewhat narrow cone towards the target, there could be a much larger margin of error. Actually, in this case, if the explosive couple launch a Hoberman sphere a the target, that might be quite effective.
-- scad mientist, Jan 13 2015



random, halfbakery