the reason for this is improved aerodynamics. when you can’t control which way a given piece of metal faces, balls offer the least drag of all shapes. this is also reason for why tungsten is used in the first place
that’s one thing, but another thing is that just after some few 10s of meters some fragmentation loses serious % of energy. you can counteract this by making it heavier, but then there’s less of them (or use denser material, like tungsten instead of steel). it’s also shape dependent. when distance is small anyway, like with SAM, this matters less and some kind of shape filling entire available space is used (like cubes)
![[NSFL] Injuries to a Russian soldier, presumably from a GLMRS M30A1 rocket with a tungsten bead warhead.](https://i.imgur.com/hcpH5Mm.png){kind=link}
the reason for this is improved aerodynamics. when you can’t control which way a given piece of metal faces, balls offer the least drag of all shapes. this is also reason for why tungsten is used in the first place
That was the main thing I was thinking. Predictable spread.
that’s one thing, but another thing is that just after some few 10s of meters some fragmentation loses serious % of energy. you can counteract this by making it heavier, but then there’s less of them (or use denser material, like tungsten instead of steel). it’s also shape dependent. when distance is small anyway, like with SAM, this matters less and some kind of shape filling entire available space is used (like cubes)