M18 Claymore savage history

“Front toward enemy” is written on every single US Army M18 Claymore. I just want to say whoever thought to do that is a doggone genius.

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Why can’t we have that kind of simple straightforward direction written on every piece of military equipment. Every rifle, grenade, helicopter and military issued sock should have this kind of clear cut instructions to make everything as idiot proof as the Claymore.

The claymore system itself is made up of three separate pieces: the mine, the clacker and the blasting cap wire. The mine is basically packed with a layer of 1 and a half pounds of the military's favorite c4 then 700 tiny 1/8th of an inch steel balls that fire out at a 60 degree arc in front of the device. This arch is achieved by the slight curvature of the claymore plastic case.

These steel balls fire out at a velocity of about 4,000 feet per second so that’s traveling 1,000 feet per second faster than a bullet from your standard M4. The operator has to make sure they’re still at least 100 meters to the rear of this device because when it explodes it’s a whole lot more of an explosion than a hand grenade

The main tactic used with the claymore nowadays is ‘terrain denial’ which means you have an area near your unit that you want to prevent the enemy from approaching. Usually this is used as a defensive device when you’ve set up a base somewhere and you want to sure up any weak spots in your defensive line. It can also be used to cover your flanks. Let’s do a quick breakdown of how a perimeter defence for a squad armed with some calymores might look like.

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