Door breaching device with safety adapter

Details Door breaching device with safety adapter Door breaching device with safety adapter

1999-03-02

2002-06-25

Jordan, Charles T. (Department: 3641)

Ammunition and explosives

Shells

With igniting means

C102S275300, C102S275700, C102S487000, C102S484000, C102S485000, C102S482000

Reexamination Certificate

active

06408765

ABSTRACT:

FIELD AND BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to devices for quickly removing a door and, more particularly, to devices for breaching a door so as to permit access through the doorway.
In various applications, both civilian and military, it is often desired to quickly remove a door so as to gain access to a certain doorway which would otherwise be blocked by the presence of a locked door. For example, drug enforcement personnel frequently need to gain rapid entry into a dwelling during a drug raid. The entry must be effected quickly in order to prevent the occupants from hiding or destroying the drugs, from escaping the premises or from seizing arms and violently resisting the efforts of the authorities. Similarly, in various circumstances, police and/or military forces must be able to gain quick access to a house or other structure protected by a door, typically locked, in order to seize, preferably alive, one or more wanted persons inside the premises and/or to free innocent hostages held inside the structure. In all these cases access must be gained in such a way that neither the persons attempting to gain access nor the persons located in the structure beyond the door to be removed are injured.
Israel Patent No. 106629 teaches a door breaching system intended for such applications which will now be described in some detail. The system includes a device, illustrated in cross section in
FIG. 1
, which has a stabilizer body
10
for stabilizing the device during its flight to the proper location, namely, into contact with the object, typically a door, to be removed. Stabilizer body
10
typically includes a tail or wings to aid in aerodynamically stabilizing the launched projectile. Stabilizer body
10
may be of any suitable type including, but not limited to, any of a wide variety of suitable conventional or known stabilizer bodies which can be used in conjunction with various launched grenades, mortars, and the like. The illustrative stabilizer body
10
depicted in
FIG. 1
is similar to that commonly used to stabilizer anti-tank projectiles on their path toward a target.
The device further includes a shaped explosive charge
12
, preferably including high explosive. Shaped explosive charge
12
is shaped to effectively breach the object, e.g., a door, without causing more than minimal damage to persons and property near and beyond the door, when explosive charge
12
is detonated at a preset distance from the door. Preferably, the anterior face of shaped explosive charge
12
is substantially spherical, but many other shapes may be effective, depending largely on the nature and dimensions of the object to be breached and on the distance from the object at which the explosion is to take place.
Shaped explosive charge
12
is located in a housing
14
designed to allow the force of the explosion to be directed anteriorly rather than posteriorly.
Housing
14
may be made of any suitable material, preferably, housing
14
is made of a suitable plastic so as to limit the formation of dangerous shrapnel and thereby minimize potential injuries to personnel on both sides of the door being blasted.
Connected to housing
14
, or integrally formed with it, is a stand-off rod
16
of suitable length. Preferably, housing
14
and stand-off rod
16
are two discrete items which are readily connected to each other. Such an arrangement makes it easier to transport the disassembled device with rods
16
, housings
14
containing shaped explosive charges
12
and stabilizer
10
housed separately for easy storage and rapid assembly. The connection of stand-off rod
16
to housing
14
, when present, may be of any suitable type, including, but not limited to, by screwing or snap-fitting rod
16
into housing
14
, and the like. Rod
16
may be made of any suitable material, including, but not limited to, plastic and metal.
The length of stand-off rod
16
and the type, amount and shape of shaped explosive charge
12
are selected to optimize the ability of the device to effectively remove the object, such as door, without injuring persons or other property in the vicinity.
Preferably, stand-off rod
16
has connected to its anterior end an impact disc
18
having an effective diameter larger than the effective diameter of standoff rod
16
. Impact disc
18
may be integrally formed with stand-off rod
16
. Preferably, impact disc
18
is disc-shaped. The presence of impact disc
18
is intended to enlarge the area of direct impact with the door so as to lower the pressure at the point of impact and thus reduce or eliminate the possibility of stand-off rod
16
penetrating the door, thereby reducing the effectiveness of the device and potentially injuring persons and damaging property located beyond the door.
Included in the device is a suitable detonating means for detonating shaped explosive charge
12
substantially upon impact of the anterior end of stand-off rod
18
with the object, e.g., the door.
The detonation can be effected in any of a number of ways, including, but not limited to, by transferring the impact from the stand off rod to a striker which initiates an initiator. The detonation is transferred to a lead pellet
20
which detonates explosive charge
12
.
Preferably, the device also includes a “safe-and-arm” device (SAD)
22
of suitable design which prevents accidental or premature detonation of the device, as is commonly used in various current applications. SAD
22
may, for example, be selected to arm shaped explosive charge
12
only after a pre-selected time period has elapsed after the device has commenced to be propelled toward its target or after the device has been propelled through a pre-selected distance. SAD
22
may, for example, operate by bringing into alignment initiator and lead pellet
20
and shaped explosive charge
12
only after a certain period of time after launching of the device. Use of SAD
22
prevents the accidental detonation of the device but typically requires that the device be fired from beyond a certain minimum distance.
To use the device the operator connects a stand-off rod
16
to housing
14
of shaped explosive charge
12
. The operator mounts stabilizer
10
onto a suitable launcher (not shown), such as a grenade launcher or suitable gun. Alternatively, stabilizer body
10
could be replaced by a self-propelling device (not shown), such as that used in RPG rockets. Preferably, however, the device is mounted onto a suitable launcher or gun which provides the propulsion required to deliver the explosive over the relatively short distance between the launcher and the objective. The operator aims at the optimal point on the object, such as a door, and fires the launcher, propelling the device toward its target.
Upon impact of the anterior end of stand-off rod
16
with the door, the initiator located in SAD
22
detonates pellet
20
(assuming SAD
22
was already armed) which, in turn, immediately sets off shaped explosive charge
12
. The created explosion pressure waves spread in a way which depends on the nature, shape and quantity of the explosive used and on the distance from the target at the moment of explosion, which is determined largely by the length of stand-off rod
16
.
The device of Israel Patent No. 106629 clearly has many advantages for rapid and relatively non-destructive knocking down of doors. However, given the short ranges over which it is typically used, the device poses a potential hazard to the device operator and other personnel in his proximity. Specifically, there is a risk that part or all of stabilizer body
10
may be propelled rearwards at high speed by the force of the explosion, thereby injuring personnel.
There is thus a need for, and it would be highly advantageous to have, a device generally similar to the device described above for quickly and effectively breaking down a locked door which will not pose a safety hazard to the operator and other personnel in his vicinity.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention is a door breaching device which includes a safety adapter.

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