Spränghandgranat 07
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Inert exhibit modell.
Propelling bottom plug left, blast body centre and fuze mechanism to the right
Spränghandgranat 07, shgr 07 (En: blast hand grenade 07), is a self-righting jump hand grenade developed by Försvarets materielverk (FMV) under product-leader Ian Kinley, who also developed the improved fuze mechanism used in the shgr 07B. The manufacturing is done at Rheinmetall Waffe Munitions ARGES GmbH in Austria at Försvarsmakten's behalf.
When spränghandgranat 07 was introduced in 2012, Försvarets Materielverk called it "the greatest news in the field of hand grenades since the Great War". The shgr 07 contain some 1900 balls that covers a cone 10 metres in diameter with the centre about 2 metres in height. This minimize the dangers outside the lethal zone as there is little to no random scattering of fragments from the blast. Kinley was by Kungliga Krigsvetenskapsakademin awarded with both the Reward-medal in Silver of the 8th size and a monetary acknowledgement from the Albergska Stiftelsen.[1]
Construction
[edit]Spränghandgranat 07 consists of a blast-body, in which the ignition mechanism with its safeties is screwed into the top and the propelling bottom plunger at the bottom, which also has the righting ribs enfolding the body upwards. When the grenade after thrown lands, the righting ribs will extend and raise the grenade perpendicular to the ground, after which the bottom plunger sends the grenade straight up to roughly two metres height where it explodes and sends the shrapnel downwards in a 136° arc, which covers a circle ten metres in diameter.[2]
Shgr 07B that was introduced 2019 has a new ignition system, also developed by Ian Kinley at FMV. Concerned with a number of serious incidents and accidents involving hand grenades, he identified the two main issues as the time-fuze's burntime variating with temperature (slows in cold and fasten in heat) and the springs, the striker spring in particular, coming pre-tensioned from the factory by designs that hasn't changed much since the 1930's. In 2019, a new mechanism, fully interchangeable with the old ones, was adopted into service. The main difference, apart from a fully environmentally stable delay, is that the springs now are twist-tensioned by the thrower after the transport safety (pin and ring) has been removed, thus eliminating the possibility of unintentional arming of the hand grenade.[3]
Technical data
[edit]Height: 130 mm. Diameter: 69 mm. Weight: 470 g. Delay: 4.0 sekonds. Jump height: c:a 2 meter. Charge: Hexotol with 1900 pre-fragmentated splinters.
External links
[edit]- Demonstration of spränghandgranat 07, including slow-motion of the detonation sequence. alternative link.
- Swedish conscripts live fire exercise with shgr 07.
- Intervju with Ian Kinely regarding sphgr 07