EFPs

I tend to be behind the curve on some topics because I want open source information before I discuss them. The problem with ever having worked in a classified field is that you don’t want to reveal classified information [unless you are an unprincipled political hack, who wants to smear people who expose your lies] even by accident.

The other problem is that I don’t want to give information to whackos who would use it to hurt people, even themselves. If some things don’t seem clear, it is because I don’t want them to be clear [or I messed up, which is possible].

A cannon is nothing more than a pipe that is closed at one end, filled with a chemical that burns or explodes, and has an object jammed down the open end. When the chemical is ignited, the pressure created pushes the object out of the pipe with a good deal of force.

An Explosively formed penetrator [EFP] is essentially a cannon that uses an explosive, instead of gunpowder, and a bowl of metal, instead of a shot ball. The Misznay-Schardin effect explains why the explosive doesn’t simply blow up the pipe, and the type of explosive is responsible for the deformation of the bowl that produces the penetration.

Metal bowls have been produced in the Middle East since copper was discovered centuries ago. You don’t need a machine shop to produce copper bowls. Via Kevin Drum we learn in an Los Angeles Times piece that the US is well aware that Iraqis are quite capable of producing EFP “slugs”.

This US News article, A mess of missing ordnance, from November of 2004 makes it obvious that Iraqis had access to all of the high quality explosives any whacko could dream of possessing.

If you wanted to produce the small, high quality EFPs that the US military uses [Real E.F.P.: Pocket-Sized Tank Killer Selectable Lightweight Attack Munition (SLAM)], you would need sophisticated equipment, but when you are creating an EFP from a water pipe filled with looted explosives and a copper bowl, you can do it almost anywhere, even in Germany in 1989.