User:Kapitan1999/sandbox

The F1 fragmentation hand grenade is manufactured by Thales Australia exclusively for the Australian Defence Force as a primary defensive the Anti-personnel grenade.

Technical Specifications and Function
The F1 fragmentation hand grenade ("F1 grenade") is a high-explosive hand throw anti-personnel grenade deployed by the Australian Defence Force to clear enemy combatants from bunkers, fire trenches, dugouts and buildings. The grenade is classified as an individual weapon suitable for all close combat situations and is designed to produce a lethal radius of 6m (19.6 ft), a casualty radius of 15m (49 ft) and a safety radius of 30m (98 ft). The F1 grenade has an overall mass of 375g consisting of 4,000 2.4mm steel ball fragments arranged to “achieve uniform distribution of lethal fragments through 360° upon functioning.” It works on a 5 second timed-fuse with an explosive composition mass of 62g of RDX. The grenade is currently manufactured by Thales Australia’s Australian Munitions arm at their Benalla Munitions factory in Victoria. The fragmentation mechanism of the F1 hand grenade suits defensive applications of the grenade most effective in open areas as the desired lethality or effect of the grenade is perofrmed through the uniform distribution of a "fragmentation matrix"

History
The F1 hand grenade was tested and manufactured by Australian Defence Industries (the former of Thales Australia) in the mid-1990s and eventually entered into service with the Australian Defence Force (ADF) in the late 1990s. The grenade is the first Australian manufactured grenade utiilised by the ADF, as previous grenades include the English-made Mills bomb M36 Mk 1 used in World War II & Korean War and the American made M26 fragmentation grenade, which was utilised by Australian forces in the Vietnam War and was replaced by the F1 grenade. The F1 hand grenade has been deployed with the Australian Defence Force to a range of conflicts, including East Timor, Afghanistan, Iraq and the Solomon Islands.

Safety Incidents
The F1 hand grenade has been involved in numerous safety incidents during both manufacturing and deployment within the Australian Defence Force. These incidents not only posed safety to the civilian employees involved in the grenades manufacturing, but also to the safety of members of the Australian Defence Force deployed overseas.

1995 St. Mary's Accidental detonation
The first of the hand grenades safety incidents occurred at an Australian Defence Industries Shell filling factory in St Marys, NSW on the 14th of November 1995. The detonation occurred within a grenade testing facility at 8:36AM while 4 employees were dismantling a defective F1 grenade. During the dismantling process the grenade accidentally detonated on a workbench surrounded by 4 employees, all of whom were injured as a result, two of which were critically injured. Criticisms regarding employee safety arose upon revelation none of the employees were behind a blast shield nor wearing body armour, though despite these criticisms a coronial inquest into the matter was never held.

2007 Defence Proof and Experimental Establishment detonation
On the 12th of September 2007 a defence contractor was seriously injured during an accidental detonation of the F1 hand grenade at the Defence Proof and Experimental Establishment in Greytown, Victoria.  This resulted in the injured Defence civilian losing his right hand as well as suffering leg injuries. Immediately following this, the Chief of the Defence Force ordered an immediate pause in the training use of the F1 Grenade as to “determine that the right measures are in place to ensure the safety of our people and the reliability of the grenade” During this time, the defence force procured sufficient stocks of High-Explosive grenades from Australia’s ally, the United States in order to support the continuation of training and use by Australian forces deployed overseas. The grenade was released back into service shortly thereafter on the 17th of October, 2007.

Reported F1 grenade detonation failures
Prior to the ADF's decision to suspend the training and use of the F1 grenade, a "small number" of failures to detonate were reported in 2006. These occured amongst Australian soldiers deployed in the Middle East and saw the ADF take "rapid steps to confirm the reliability of grenades in service". Following the temporary suspension of the F1 fragmentation grendase from use within the ADF, stocks of American High Explosive hand grenades were producred for use by Australian forces deployed in the Middle East. Floowing the re-introduction of the F1 grenade back into service in October 2007, no subsequent failures to detonate have been reported.

Variants
Thales Australia produces two variants to the F1 hand grenade; the F2 blast grenade and the F3 practice grenade. Thales Australia has also entered into an agreement with the Chemring Group to develop and manufacture a future range of hand grenades for the Australian Defence Force.

F2 Blast Grenade
The F2 blast grenade was developed as an insensitive munition’s variant of the F1 fragmentation grenade following a co-development agreement between Thales-owned Australian Munitions and German company Diehl in 2013. The F2 blast grenade is a 225g blast-variant of the F1 grenade with an increased high-explosive RDX-based fill within a plastic body without a fragmentation mechanism. As a result, the F2 has more predictable blast patterns and increased user safety compared to the F1, chiefly suited to use within confined areas for close-quarter combat. The blast mechanism of the F2 renders the grenade more suitable for Offensive use by infantiry soldiers with the desired lethality or wounding effect of the grenade achieved through the high pressure of the explosive compared to the fragmentation matrix of the F1 fragmentation grenade.

F3 Practice Grenade
The F3 practice hand grenade is a non-fragmenting replica of the F1 grenade used for training purposes and produces an acoustic and smoke signature to simulate the detonation and functioning of the F1 hand grenade during training by the Australian Defence Force. The grenade itself is near-identical to the F1 in physical characteristics consisting of a high impact aluminium die cast body with a replaceable 0.5g flash composition pyrotechnic fuse. This fuse creates audible output and a distinct visual white smoke cloud visible up to 200m to indicate the simulated functioning of the grenade.

Future grenade developments
In September 2018, it was announced that Thales Australia and the Chemring Group signed a joint Memorandum of understanding covering cooperation in the "design, development and manufacture of a future range of grenades" This new "Family of Grenade" product range includes fragmentation, offensive, smoke and training products to be designed and manufactured at Thales Australia's Commonwealth defence facilities in Benalla, Victoria and Mulwala, New South Wales. Additionally, the Chemring groups production facility in Lara, Victoria will also be used. This agreement on a future range of grenades will focus on the design and manufacture of a "modular hand grenade product range" allowing a user-selectable detonation mechanism depending on the desired battlefield effect.

This new range of modular grenades would combine the effects of the F1 fragmentation grenade and the F2 blast grenade into a selectable modular grenade with capabilities simlar to the german Diehl manufactured DM51 modular hand grenade, which has a removable fragmentation sleeve. While the design and development of this grenade is slated to primarily focus on the current and future military needs of the ADF, the grenade range will also be made available for export customers under the Australian Government Defence Export Strategy. Overall this agreement supports "Australia's key Sovereign Industrial Capabilitiy priority for munitions and small arms research, design, development and manufacture"

Foreign Alternatives
Many of Australia's military allies and potential adversaries also produce and use foreign alternatives to the F1 fragmentation hand grenade.

United States of America
The primary fragmentation hand grenade of the United States Armed Forces since the 1960s is the Day & Zimmermann manufactured M67 grenade. The M67 is slightly heavier than the F1 hand grenade and has an explosive filling of Composition B, or a mixture of RDX and TNT. The M67 has seen use by U.S forces in the Vietnam War, Operation Urgent Fury, Operation "Just Cause" as well as several American military campaigns in the Middle East. SOURCE. In addition to the U.S military, the M67 is currently used or has been used as an infantry hand grenade in the armed forces of Canadian, Malaysia, Nicaragua, El Salvador, New Zealand, Saudi Arabia, The Philippines and Turkey.

The United Kingdom
The British Armed Forces use the RUAG Swiss-made HG 85 Fragmentation hand grenade with a localised designation of the L109A1 This hand grenade is heavier than the F1 hand grenade and has an explosive filling of TNT as opposed to RDX and has a smaller number of fragments (1800 0.1g balls) compared to the F1's 2400

Germany
Germany's defence force, the Bundeswehr currently uses the Diehl Defence's DM51 fragmentation hand grenade. As the standard grenate of the nations military, the DM51 has a unique capability of being both an offensive and defensive grendade. The fragmentation mechanism of a hand-grenade serves a defensive purpose, however the DM51 has a removeable fragmentation jacket which allows the user to change the grende from defensive to an offensive blast grenade. As a result, the DM51 can undertake the roles of both the F1 fragmentation hand grenade and the F2 blast grenade.

Singapore
The Singapore Armed Forces's primary fragmentation hand grenade is the SFG87 manufactured by ST Kinetics and is lighter in overall mass to the F1 grenade at 300g with slightly different kill and casualty radiuses (5m & 20m).

Russia
The Russian Armed Forces use the RGO hand grenade as their primary defensive fragmentation grenade. The RGO is havier than the F1 grenade weighting between 520g-530g, though it has a similar kill and casualty radius to the F1 (6m & 20m)

Answer to Module 7 Questions.

 * 1) I have uploaded a photo of Palm Beach, NSW taken facing south from the Barrenjoey Lighthouse.
 * 2) This is my own work.
 * 3) This is a JPG file.
 * 4) I hace chosen a public domain license.
 * 5) I have added it to the category/gallery of "nature" and "beaches"
 * 6) A south-facing aerial shot of Palm Beach, NSW. Photo was taken from rocks in front of Barrenjoey Lighthouse

Draft Section
Technical Specifications and Function

The F1 fragmentation hand grenade is a high-explosive hand thrown anti-personnel grenade deployed by the Australian Defence Force to clear enemy combatants from bunkers, fire trenches, dugouts and buildings.The grenade is designed to produce a lethal radius of 6m (19.6 ft), a casualty radius of 15m (49 ft) and a safety radius of 30m (98 ft) The F1 grenade has an overall mass of 375g consisting of 4,000 2.4mm steel ball fragments arranged to “achieve uniform distribution of lethal fragments through 360° upon functioning.” It works on a 5 second timed-fuse with an explosive composition mass of 62g of RDX.2 The grenade is currently manufactured by Thales Australia’s Australian Munitions arm at their Benalla Munitions factory in Victoria. 2 [1] The Australian Army, (2020) “Grenades”

[2] Australian Munitions, (2016) “Hand Grenades: Designed for Operational Effectiveness”

Activity 5.4.1 For Peer Review - Practicing Citations
The F1 has a high impact aluminium die cast cylindrical body

The F1 Fragmentation Grenade is a hand-thrown, anti-personnel grenade. It is effective in the clearing of enemy from bunkers, fire trenches, dugouts and buildings.

The accidental explosion of a fragmentation grenade in a munitions factory at St Marys injured four workers, two critically.

The Chief of the Defence Force ordered an immediate pause in the training use of the F1 grenade.

The M26 was replaced in the late 1990s by the Australian-designed and produced F1 high explosive fragmentation grenade