Talk:White phosphorus munitions/Archives/2010/March

Misquoted Source

The section "Arms control status and military regulation" states "The Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons, not the Chemical Weapons Convention, goes on, in its Protocol III, to prohibit the use of all air-delivered incendiary weapons against civilian populations, or for indiscriminate incendiary attacks against military forces co-located with civilians," which cites http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/library/policy/int/convention_conventional-wpns_prot-iii.htm as its source.

The contributor is misreading the source he quoted. His source states "It is prohibited in all circumstances to make any military objective located within a concentration of civilians the object of attack by air-delivered incendiary weapons." There is a very large difference between military force "co-locating with civilians" and a "military objective located within a concentration of civilians." The former suggests that the military force sought to use the civilians as cover (a tactic employed by Palestinian militants in Gaza), while the latter suggests that the military objective and the civilians weren't purposely located together.--24.139.46.213 (talk) 04:37, 5 March 2010 (UTC)

Reason for munition going off high in the air

I am surprised that the fact that phosphorous munitions were seen in Gaza and elsewhere to going off high in the air was not discussed(how high I don't know, but well above buildings and far above tree tops). This is obviously relevant to its use and I think it needs to be discussed in the weapon sections and in the Gaza section. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Lawabider (talk • contribs) 12:20, 9 June 2009 (UTC)

WP is an "airburst munition." This is normal. Many artillery shells use fuzes that are "point detonating," meaning they detonate when the fuze of the round impacts on the ground. Most WP rounds in use will not accept a PD fuze. Some of the older ones would, but the M825 round (which is in use today) will not. It will only accept Mechanical or Electrical Time Fuzes. Setting the fuze timer to the correct setting ensures that the round will burst in the air, which enables proper distribution of the felt wedges. If the timer is set "too high" (too much time), the fuze will function late--i.e. too low, or after the round has come into contact with the ground. If the time fuze is set "too low" (not enough time), the fuze will function early--i.e. too high, which causes a wider-than-desired distribution of the felt wedges...wider distribution means thinner smoke screen.

In an urban setting, it is better to set the fuzes to function above the roof line. If the fuzes are set to function below the roof line, the shell would go through most roofs (unless the roofs are made of steel reinforced concrete). Only after going through the roof, into the building would the time expire on the fuze, causing the munition to burst, and most likely burn much of the room or possibly the building. As I'm sure you can tell, this isn't desirable in most circumstances.--24.139.46.213 (talk) 04:18, 5 March 2010 (UTC)