From: "Gerald L. Hurst" <glhurst@onr.com>
Newsgroups: alt.engr.explosives
Subject: Re: Astrolite, FAE's and PBX's
Date: Tue, 23 Jun 1998 01:04:16 -0500

A few notes on this thread:

FAE can generate a good 100 psi.  That should be adequate for
setting off a pressure-sensitive mine.  It's also enough pressure
to incapacitate a soldier -- or worse.

I believe I skimmed a post poo-pooing dust FAEs.  It is actually easier
to get a good dispersion of soild particles than it is to produce a liquid
aerosol.

I also noted some criticism of uncased munitions questions.  "Uncased"
refers not simply to plastic-bonded high explosives but also to bullets and
artillery shells in which the low explosive propellant has no casing.  Then
there are the air-blast systems in which a casing or at least a heavy one
is just dead weight to be lugged around.  After all a so-called 500 pound
bomb only carries about 200 pounds of HE.

Astrolite systems were developed for air-scatterable mine dispersion
during the Viet Nam war.  It is true that the liquid explosive cannot do
the things solids do best, but they can do things solids can't.  Personally, I'm
not much of an Astrolite fan for various good reasons but it does have
some remarkable properties.

Jerry (Ico)