Method of Operation
DIME weapons consist of a carbon fiber casing filled with a mixture of explosive and very dense microshrapnel, consisting of very small particles (1–2 mm) or powder of a heavy metal. To date, tungsten alloy (heavy metal tungsten alloy, or HMTA) composed of tungsten and other metals such as cobalt and nickel or iron has been the preferred material for the dense microshrapnel or powder.
Two common HMTA alloys are:
- rWNiCo: tungsten (91–93%), nickel (3–5%) and cobalt (2–4%)
- rWNiFe: tungsten (91–93%), nickel (3–5%) and iron (2–4%)
Upon detonation of the explosive, the casing disintegrates into extremely small particles, as opposed to larger pieces of shrapnel which results from the fragmentation of a metal shell casing. The HMTA powder acts like micro-shrapnel which is very lethal at close range (about 4 meters or 13 feet), but loses momentum very quickly due to air resistance, coming to a halt within approximately 40 times the diameter of the charge. This increases the probability of killing people within a few meters of the explosion while reducing the probability of causing death and injuries or damage farther away. Survivors close to the lethal zone may have their limbs amputated (as the microshrapnel can slice through soft tissue and bone) by the HMTA microshrapnel embedded in their body tissue.
Read more about this topic: Dense Inert Metal Explosive
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