It was ineffective, having numerous reliability issues and a range of only 30 yards (27m). It is not marked "FRONT TOWARD ENEMY." It is also internally different, using C-3 explosive instead of C4 and using steel cube projectiles instead of ball bearings.
The original M18 was barely produced (only 10,000 were made, some of which made their way to Vietnam in 1961) and can be distinguished from the M18A1 by having straight stakes for legs rather than the fold-open scissor-legs of the M18A1, with stability provided by a third leg in the middle which extends out in front of the mine, and with the iron sight on top of the mine an optional accessory. Claymores are typically issued in an M7 bandolier ("Claymore bag") containing a printed instruction sheet, a mine, M6 electric blasting caps, the M57 detonator, a 100-foot (30m) M4 firing wire wrapped around a plastic spool, and an M40 circuit tester for function tests. The "hump" on the top of the mine is an iron sight to allow the user to judge its area of effect when placing it, with the two "ears" on the side a pair of removable combination shipping plugs and priming adaptors which cover the two fuze wells: these can be rotated, and can either be used to route a cable through to an inserted blasting cap, or removed to insert non-standard detonators. Because the plastic mine body is completely destroyed by the detonation, the Claymore also has a "backblast" danger zone of 52 feet (16m) in the remaining 300 degrees not part of the main blast. The mine's effective range is around 55 yards (50m), though fragments can travel up to 270 yards (250m). On detonation, the ball bearings are ejected in a 60-degree arc at around 4,000 feet per second (1,200 meters per second or Mach 3.6) with the force of the detonation distorting them to the point they resemble. The mine's payload is 700 1/8-inch (3.2mm) steel ball bearings encased in a resin matrix, set in front of a convex layer of C4 explosive that is normally triggered by a blasting cap. While they are not usually used in a self-detonated mode, it is possible to rig up systems to detonate the mine via other means: anything which can trigger a blasting cap will work. Multiple mines can be daisychained to the same detonator.
Jydge detonate c4 generator#
Contrary to depictions in media which usually show it as rigged to a tripwire or proximity detonated, the M18A1 is almost always used in a command-detonated mode using the M57 "clacker" detonator (a small piezoelectric toggle generator based on an igniter developed by the US Navy for the "Tiny Tim" air-to-surface rocket) linked to the mine via a cable. The M18A1 Claymore is the main production version and the most likely to be seen: it was adopted by the United States Military in 1960 and first used in Vietnam in 1966.
Jydge detonate c4 series#
The M18 Claymore series are directional antipersonnel mines developed during the 1950s. M18A1 Claymore anti-personnel mine with command cable and M57 'clacker' detonator switch