Beehive (ammunition)

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Beehive is an anti-personnel round fired from an artillery or tank gun, packed full of metal darts, flechettes, which are released when the round bursts over the target. It is so-called because of the 'buzzing' sound the darts make when flying through the air and in the manner of numerous bees around an actual beehive. It is deadly when used against concentrations of enemy troops due to its shotgun effect in similarity to claymore mines. The beehive round can be considered an evolution of canister shot artillery ammunition.

Beehive rounds were extensively used in the Vietnam War, for defence of firebase perimeters against massed enemy attacks, and because it could penetrate the thick canopy of the jungle and "pad" it out. The primary beehive round for this purpose was the M546 APERS-T (anti-personnel tracer) round which fires 8000 flechettes from a horizontally levelled barrel of a 105mm howitzer[1]. Beehive rounds were also used in the Ontos's recoiless rifles[2] and the M60 tanks.

Recently, the use of the 105mm M494E3 APERS-T round[3] beehive round in Palestine by the IDF has been criticized.

Recent developments of tank anti-personnel rounds have trended away from the use of flechettes and towards the use of high density metal balls (tungsten) combined with timed explosives in APAM (Anti-Personnel Anti-Materiel) rounds.[4]

The term may also refer to "Sanshiki" (lit. "beehive") ammunition, a combined shrapnel and incendiary round for anti-aircraft use, used by the Imperial Japanese Navy in World War II.

  1. ^ http://www.fas.org/man/dod-101/sys/land/m546.htm
  2. ^ http://www.diggerhistory.info/pages-armour/allied/ontos.htm
  3. ^ http://www.janes.com/regional_news/africa_middle_east/news/jdw/jdw010522_2_n.shtml
  4. ^ http://www.imi-israel.com/Business/ProductsFamily/TankAmmunition.aspx?FolderID=31&docID=110


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