M93 Hornet

An anti-tank off-route munition made of lightweight material that a person can carry and employ.

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Description

The M93 Hornet is an anti-tank off-route munition made of lightweight material (35 pounds) that one person can carry and employ. The Hornet is a non-recoverable munition that is capable of acquiring targets by using sound and motion detection methods. It will automatically search, detect, recognize, and engage moving targets by using top attack at a standoff distance up to 100 meters from deployment site. It is employed by combat engineers, rangers, and SOF.

The RCU is a hand-held encoding unit that interfaces with the Hornet when the remote mode is selected at the time of employment. After encoding, the RCU can be used to arm the Hornet, reset its self-destruct (SD) times, or destroy it. The maximum operating distance for the RCU is 2 kilometers.

High winds, heavy rain, snow, ice, extreme cold, and extreme heat reduce the Hornet's ability to detect targets at maximum range. Radio-frequency (RF) jamming devices (such as the hand-emplaced, expandable jammer [HEXJAM]), limit the Hornet's communication capabilities if they are placed in the munition field, but they will not affect the Hornet's ability to engage targets and will not damage the system. RF jamming devices will also affect the remote arming of current Hornet systems.

The Hornet's active battery pack is inserted during pre-arming and has an estimated life of four hours. The active battery pack powers the munition from the time it is inserted until the end of the safe-separation time, when the built-in reserve battery is activated. To prevent munitions from becoming duds, do not pre-arm them too early. Allow adequate time for traveling to the obstacle site, emplacing mines, throwing arming switches, and expiration of safe-separation times.

Once the Hornet is armed and the self-test is performed, the munition will remain active until its SD time expires or until it is encountered. The SD time (4 hours, 48 hours, 5 days, 15 days, or 30 days) is determined by the user. The munition will self-detonate after the SD time has expired.

Hornet munitions have an employed life of 60 days in the pre-armed mode (remote arming) and 30 days in the armed mode. If the temperature exceeds 100?F, the employed life drops to 15 days in the pre-armed mode and 30 days in the armed mode.