For FEBRUARY 2004 issue

SCIENCE IN CRIME DETECTION-124

USE OF HAND GRENADES BY TERRORISTS

‑Dr. Anil Aggrawal

Terrorism is on the increase, with daily news covering items of cross-border terrorism coming from across the borders. The terrorists are increasingly using grenades. Many readers have asked me what grenades are, how we identify them, how many types of grenades are there, and what injuries are caused by them. In this month’s installment, I hope to clarify some of the mystery surrounding various types of grenades.

First introduced in the fifteenth century, grenades waited 300 years to take their name from the Spanish granada, or “pomegranate.”

Early grenades were spherical charges (hence the descriptive name) with combustible fuses, the latter prone to detonate prematurely or else burn so long that the enemy had ample time for a return pitch. With the demise of siege warfare, grenades fell out of favor, making their reappearance on both sides of the Russo-Japanese war in 1904. Proliferation in World War I and later years saw grenades evolve into distinct offensive and defensive types, using both explosive and chemical munitions. With a wide variety of models including high-explosive (HE), smoke, incendiary, and riot control, grenades are ideal for use by criminals and terrorists, as well as their opponents. Under existing federal law, grenades are classed as “destructive devices,” and their possession is subject to various statute restrictions.

Grenades are generally fired by either time or impact fuses. Time fuses are the most common, based on simplicity, economy, and overall reliability. The typical time fuse employs a spring loaded lever, held in place by a safety pin, and later by the thrower’s hand. As a grenade is thrown, the lever flies away, permitting the striker to hit a percussion cap. This, in turn, ignites a “delay composition,” with detonation of the main charge postponed for a period of seconds while the grenade is in flight. Impact fuses are more delicate and costly, striking a precarious balance between volatility in action and safety in transit. One common type has a small internal cavity, with a steel ball at one end and a fragile striker at the other. Initially restrained by a safety pin - and later by the force of acceleration in flight - the steel ball is thrown forward by sharp deceleration, impacting the striker to produce detonation.

High-explosive charges are destructive in themselves, but if you’ve ever watched a “human cannonball” routine, you know the blast itself may not produce fatalities. Some sort of shrapnel is required to ventilate the enemy, with early grenades relying on the break-up of a cast iron casing. Poor results were gained at first, with some grenades disintegrating into dust and others hurling three or four huge chunks of metal, so designers started etching grooves around the casing, inaugurating the famous “pineapple” design. Modern fragmentation grenades normally use a thin steel casing, with tight coils of notched, square-section wire inside, providing a more symmetrical kill zone.

A popular frag grenade among terrorists is the Soviet RGD5, also manufactured by the Chinese. Light enough to be thrown over thirty-five to forty yards, the RGD-5 has an average casualty radius of eighteen to twenty-two yards. Chinese versions of this grenade were used against British troops by the Front for the Liberation of South Yemen, and the Viet Gong used them extensively in South Vietnam. The Carlos gang carried several during the 1975 OPEC raid, with one member – Hans-Joachim Klein - hurling an RGD-5 at police before a bullet ricocheted off his submachine gun and drilled through his stomach.

America’s standard grenade of the Vietnam era, now considered obsolete, was the spherical M 26. Tipping the scales at one pound, the M 26 was alternately used for stopping North Vietnamese Army charges and “fragging” unpopular officers behind the lines, proving equally effective at both tasks. Stolen in bulk by the Baader-Meinhof gang in 1971, a shipment of these grenades was traced by the serial numbers to the Japanese Red Army and the Carlos syndicate in France. It should not be supposed, from the decree of obsolescence, that no specimens of this grenade remain available.

Replacing the M 26 as America’s standard fragmentation grenade is the M 67, with an average throwing range of forty meters and a casualty radius of fifteen meters. For extra security the M 67’s safety lever is retained by both the standard pin and a small wire clip, designed as a back-up in case the pin is accidentally removed. In practice, soldiers normally remove the clip first, leaving the pin in place until they are ready to lob the grenade at their target. A four- or five-second delay before detonation is standard on the M 67.

A variant of the M 67, logically designated as the M 68, is essentially the same grenade with a different fuse, incorporating a combination of the standard impact and time delay mechanisms. The M 68’s impact fuse fires by means of an electric detonator and tiny thermal power supply, with action initiated by means of a percussion cap. The thermal power supply requires a second or two to generate sufficient electricity for detonation, but after that time has elapsed, the detonator will fire if the M 68 strikes a hard surface or is sharply jolted. As a back-up system, in case the impact detonator fails for any reason, the grenade’s power train keeps burning on its own, blowing the charge by pyrotechnic action within a maximum of seven seconds.

Smoke grenades come in a variety of colors and sizes, with the standard U.S. model designated as the AN-M8. A burning type grenade, designed to generate white smoke for screening small unit activities, the AN-M8 is also used for ground-to-air signaling in combat situations, such as marking a helicopter landing field. The grenade’s cylindrical case is constructed from thin sheet metal, containing HC smoke mixture and a chemical starter compound. Light enough to be thrown for about thirty yards, the AN-MS generates smoke for an average period of 105 to 150 seconds.

Incendiary grenades are designed primarily for destruction of buildings and equipment, but they may also have grisly antipersonnel applications. America’s standard incendiary grenade is the ANM14, similar in appearance to the AN-MS smoke grenade, but filled with a volatile mixture of Thermite TH3 and First Fire Mixture VII. In action, the AN-M14 generates a temperature of 2,200 degrees (Centigrade) for a period of thirty to forty-five seconds.

Riot control grenades normally generate the same gases - CN and CS -, but a number of innovative designs are available, including several from Accuracy Systems, in Phoenix. One such, the M452 “Stingball,” has a one-second fuse designed to prevent throwback and achieve airbursts with a minimum of effort. The Stingball’s casing is molded from soft rubber, with the explosive charge in a central pocket, surrounded by numerous marble-sized soft-rubber balls. On detonation, these are fired in all directions, pelting members of a crowd with stinging force and (hopefully) dispersing their formation. For a little something extra, Accuracy System’s M45C, the “Comboball,” includes a dose of CS gas to keep things interesting.

Stun grenades are another popular item with antiterrorist units, designed to blind and deafen gunmen, sometimes knocking them unconscious, with a minimum of risk to hostages. Accuracy Systems offers a full range of antiterrorist munitions, including the M429 (“Thunderflash”), the M470 Magnum, the M450 (“Multiflash”), and the M451 (“Multi-Starflash”) grenades. The basic model M429 is specially formulated from cardboard, to minimize flying shrapnel, designed to produce a stunning blast and brilliant flash of light. The M470 Magnum provides roughly twice the M429’s concussive force, for use outdoors, while the M450 ejects seven distinct submunitions, emitting a series of blasts in a two second time span. Finally, the M451 throws in the kitchen sink, with multiple blasts, dazzling flashes, and sizzling-hot sparks to stun and disorient human targets.

The Rocket’s Red Glare

Terrorists are generally deprived of artillery, but in recent years they’ve made up the difference by resorting to use of portable (and often disposable) rocket launchers. Less than five feet long in many cases, modern air-to-ground and antiarmor weapons are designed for maximum mobility in combat situations, providing individual foot soldiers with the ultimate in firepower short of tactical nuclear weapons. Weapons like the American “Stinger” and LAW rockets (Light Antitank Weapon) have found their way into terrorist hands already, with various groups vying hungrily for newer, more lethal hardware.

The Soviet RPG-7 is standard equipment for terrorists around the world, provided by Eastern Bloc countries and makeshift production lines in the Middle East. The RPG’s shoulder-fired launcher measures 39 inches overall, with a bore diameter of 1.5 inches, and weighs 15.4 pounds. The cumbersome rocket weighs 4.95 pounds and protrudes from the muzzle, sporting a payload 3.3 inches in diameter. Maximum range for a stationary target is 555 yards, with accuracy reduced to 330 yards for moving targets. On impact, the rocket can penetrate 12.6 inches of armor plating.

Widely used against Americans in Vietnam, the RPG has also surfaced in South Africa, in the hands of the terrorist African National Congress. Members of the IRA appreciate the weapon, and by October 1981 they had fired at least 185 Soviet rockets at British army posts and vehicles, losing twenty-one launchers in various raids. In January 1973, the Carlos gang staged two attacks with RPGs at Orly airport, trying to destroy El Al airliners, but the gunners missed their targets each time, damaging a Yugoslavian plane and an airport terminal building. On September 15, 1981, the Baader-Meinhof gang fired an RPG rocket at a vehicle occupied by General Frederick Kreusen, U.S. Army Commander in Europe, but Kreusen was spared major injury despite a direct hit on his armored Mercedes.

The Soviet SAM 7 “Strela” is a surface-to-air missile, measuring 51.2 inches overall, fired from a 53-inch portable launcher. Weighing 20.25 pounds, the rocket is powered by a three-stage solid propellant motor, with a maximum range of 3,792 yards and a maximum altitude of 6,560 feet. In flight, an infrared heat-seeking guidance system takes the SAM 7 to its target - presumably the engines of a fighter plane, military helicopter, or civilian airliner.

In the Yom Kippur War of October 1973, SAM 7s scored the few successful hits achieved by Arab antiaircraft batteries upon Israeli fighters. By that time, the weapon had already made its first appearance in terrorist hands, with the arrest of five Palestinians in Ostia, Italy. Renting a top-floor apartment three miles from Rome’s airport, the guerrillas had two missiles in their closet when police arrived, aborting their plan to shoot down the first available El Al liner. SAM 7s were also used by the Zimbabwe African People’s Union, downing two Rhodesian Viscount airliners during the bitter guerrilla war that resulted in the foundation of modern Zimbabwe. More recently, in October 1988, a SAM 7 was confiscated from IRA gunners in Northern Ireland.

The American M47 Dragon is an antitank weapon, tube-launched, wire-guided, and optically tracked by one gunner. In practice, the disposable Fiberglas launcher is supported on a folding stand, with the operator seated on the ground, the muzzle of the launcher resting on his shoulder. The rocket’s nose contains a shaped charge and fuse, the middle section sporting sixty side thrust rocket motors that operate in pairs. The gunner merely has

to choose his target, keeping it in sight until he scores a hit, at which time he removes the tracking mechanism and attaches it to a new launching tube.

Captions to the figures supplied

A car damaged by a hand grenade.

Electrical detonators in cross section. A: Instantaneous detonator; B: time detonator.

Remnants of electric detonators found at safe burglary scenes.

This article has (1974) words

Dr. Anil Aggrawal, M.D. Professor of Forensic Medicine Maulana Azad Medical College New Delhi‑110002