BROACH warhead

The Bomb Royal Ordnance Augmented Charge (BROACH) is a multi-stage warhead developed by BAE Systems Global Combat Systems Munitions, Thales Missile Electronics and QinetiQ.^[1][2]

Development of BROACH began in 1991 when Team BROACH consisted of British Aerospace Royal Ordnance Defence, Thomson-Thorn Missile Electronics and the Defence Evaluation and Research Agency (DERA). The two stage warhead is made up from an initial shaped charge, which cuts a passage through armour, concrete, earth, etc., allowing a larger following warhead to penetrate inside the target. The weapon is designed to allow a cruise missile to achieve the degree of hard-target penetration formerly only possible by the use of laser-guided gravity bombs.

Applications

• Storm Shadow/SCALP EG
• AGM-154 Joint Standoff Weapon unitary variant (JSOW-C)^[3]
• BROACH was evaluated as a possible warhead for the AGM-86 ALCM cruise missile but was ultimately not selected.^[4]