Fragmentation (weaponry)

This article is about casing fragmentation of explosive weaponry. For the internally held projectiles delivered by anti-personnel artillery, see Shrapnel shell.

Grooved body of a Second World War-era U.S. Mk 2 grenade. The grooves covering the exterior of the grenade are used to aid in the gripping of the grenade when throwing. The grooves were also intended to aid in fragmentation but studies showed this was ineffective.

Diagram of S-mine in the delivery of steel ball fragments

Internals of a AGM-114 Hellfire missile, showing its pre-cut fragmentation sleeve around a hollow shaped charge

Fragmentation is the process by which the casing, shot, or other components of an anti-personnel weapon, bomb, barrel bomb, land mine, IED, artillery, mortar, tank gun, autocannon shell, rocket, missile, grenade, etc. are dispersed and/or shattered by the detonation of the explosive filler.

The correct term for those pieces is "fragments” (nicknamed “splinters” or “shards”). Preformed fragments can be of various shapes (spheres, cubes, rods, etc.) and sizes and are normally held rigidly within some form of matrix or body until the high explosive (HE) filling is detonated. The resulting high-velocity fragments produced by either method are the main lethal mechanisms of these weapons, rather than the heat or overpressure caused by detonation, although offensive grenades are often constructed without a frag matrix.

The casing pieces are often incorrectly referred to as "shrapnel", particularly by non-military media sources.

A fragmentation sleeve is a sleeve that fits onto an explosive weapon to provide fragmentation effect. Offensive grenades can be converted into a fragmentation grenade using an add-on sleeve.