David Hambling writing at Wired Magazine’s blog “Danger Room” writes here about a new grenade that would be used against enemy or terrorist divers and frogmen. Linking to this press release by the Navy’s NAVAIR here, the release quotes a Gabriel Soto, listed as the Anti-swimmer grenade (ASG) lead electronics design engineer.Here Soto laments:
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“The MK3 grenades currently being used,” Gabriel Soto explained, “are not very effective. They only have a four-to-five-second delay before detonation, which means they don’t get very deep.” And they can pose a threat to the user as well, he said. Since they do not have built-in safe-arm features, once the pin is pulled and the lever released, they detonate in four to five seconds.”
And this … “The unit will also “render safe” if it does not reach 10 feet deep, or if it detects out-of-sequence or unsafe environments. On the other hand, another timer will initiate detonation if the unit has passed the 10-foot threshold and enough time has elapsed for it to have reached the pre-set detonation depth, even if it has not reached that depth. This feature eliminates the concerns of armed, but unexploded, ASG units resting on shelves or other obstructions in the ocean or other waterways.”
You know, I know we really need lots of design engineers and I know we need lots of program managers and I know the American Military Industrial Complex loves to throw money at a problem, but imagine, just imagine a day when a Program Management office said, OK, here’s the problem: our grenades don’t go deep enough to kill a deep swimmer and we are afraid they won’t self destruct, does anyone have any innovative ideas? And imagine, just imagine, that if the project was budgeted for say 10 million dollars of R&D funds, that up front they said, we are going to budget 10% for small companies and individuals. We will award three awards for 333K to someone that currently does less than a million dollars a year, to include individuals.
You know how you read something every now and then, and it sticks in your mind? Look at this from the great novel “Show of Force” by Charles D. Taylor written in 1980. This is a novel about a Cold War confrontation between a US destroyer and Russian submarine. The Skipper of a Destroyer orders some fragmentation grenades be readied. The germane portions reprinted here for our Excalibur readers:
- “David, tell the gun boss to have some grenades brought aft, the least we can do is make it uncomfortable for him. A few moments later when David reported the grenades ready, Carter ordered “tell them to drop the first one in thirty seconds and then two more after counting to fifteen seconds as we pass over him. ….The noise of an underwater explosion is compounded since water tends to hold that sound, as opposed to air, which rapidly dissipates it. A grenade going off underwater may sound like a cannon shot to those nearby. Within a submarine, the explosion is magnified to the point that an untrained crew, or one with little experience, will think they have just been hit. The purpose of the toilet paper is to ensure the sub’s crew is kept as nervous as possible. The paper will gradually disintegrate as the grenade floats down until the handle releases, still taking a bit more time before detonation. A light wrapping of paper will bring an explosion at about 100 feet, while a gunners mate with experience can wrap the grenade so that it might go down as far as 250 to 300 feet, or more. The deeper the water, the greater the pressure, the louder the bang…all that effect for the price of a grenade!
OK Excalibur readers did you catch that? Your tax dollars are going to solve a problem that was solved by old naval hands 25 years ago. Charles Taylor says in the preface he was a Navy veteran and had consulted with Destroyer skippers and naval various organizations when writing that book. Now, I know people will say it’s not safe, not tested, blah, blah, blah. Then test a paper sleeve to wrap around the grenade of various sizes, fit them, and move out!
Imagine people, just imagine a day when we used our brains and not our precious tax dollars? Imagine this:
There are some things money can’t (or won’t) buy, for all else, there is the Federal Budget. (With apologies and props to Mastercard Priceless ads.)