Axing the Competition Published June 15, 2010 By Stacey Carswell Munitions EGLIN AIR FORCE BASE, Florida -- Air Force Research Laboratory's Battle-Axe Ordnance program, which works to enhance the lethality of multimode ordnance packages, completed a successful test series for two integrated warheads. Supporting the lab's premiere micro munitions, the Battle-Axe warhead will increase the capacity of precision-guided submunitions to defeat a broad range of ground targets, including soft fixed, soft mobile, and armored varieties. Battle-Axe houses two primary kill mechanisms: a shaped charge and a fragmenting body, both of which utilize reactive materials. To collect detonation-related data, tests involved the warhead's static placement in the center of an arena containing rolled homogeneous armor and mild steel targets, diesel targets, and RHA armor plates. Researchers also placed the warhead on a PGS seeker in order to test the seeker's effect on the warhead's shape-charge jet. This advanced, highly lethal, and very versatile warhead will be small enough for large load-outs on a wide variety of air platforms (e.g., Low-Cost Miniature Cruise Missile, C-130 aircraft, and Predator and other unmanned air vehicles). Its proficiency in addressing a broad spectrum of targets will translate to reduced inventory requirements. Further, the warhead will achieve lethality regardless of target set--a capability driven by advances in reactive material densities and energy release. Compared to equivalently sized conventional warheads, Battle-Axe will match or increase lethality and do so in a smaller warhead package. Moreover, the technology's high probability of kill in defeating multiple, independent targets will significantly reduce the number of sorties required for a given mission.