Abstract: An armor piercing explosive shell comprises a hollow charge and an impact contact member placed in the nose cone of the shell and arranged to provide electrical contact for initiation of the hollow charge upon impact of the shell against the target. To improve the penetrative performance of the shell against targets protected by active armor the nose cone of the shell is provided with a reinforced tip for mechanical penetration of the active armor and the impact contact member does not extend all the way to the tip of the shell so that upon impact of the shell against the active armor contact is obtained only after the reinforced tip has penetrated the active armor.

Abstract: This invention relates to a hollow charge for a missile, projectile, shell or the like. The invention is particularly intended to be used on a missile which is arranged to pass a target and the hollow charge initiated when the missile is over, at the side of or under the target which means that the hollow charge is inclined with respect to the longitudinal axis (13) of the missile. The hollow charge comprises an inner, jet-forming, trumpet-shaped cone member (3) and an outer casing (2) having a substantially straight cylindrical part (8) connected to a conical tapered part (9, 10) to give the hollow charge jet an extremely high front tip velocity as well as a low velocity gradient.