Basic Information
The Explosively Formed Penetrator Round exploits the Munroe effect of a shaped explosive charge to form a metal sheet into a high velocity kinetic penetrator to defeat armour.
These are almost all ordnance class weapons - the construction of shaped charges requires a certain minimum calibre and known deployments include cluster bombs, artillery shells and anti-tank mines. Some more advanced IEDs also use this principle as well.
Perhaps the most impressive examples of these weapons are the various "top attack" munitions that are designed to fire their EFP directly downwards onto the roof of an AFV (which is generally a weaker part of the armour) - these can be deployed from the aforementioned cluster bombs and artillery rounds or discharged from the side of a guided missile such as the Bofors BILL.
Sources
Game and Story Use
- (Taken from real life) IEDs used to attack the PCs unit have suddenly become a lot more dangerous as the enemy have deployed EFP technology. The PCs commander dispatches them to locate an eliminate the cell responsible before they can spread their expertise to other units. Ideally they will also be able to bring whoever trained the bomb-makers back so that the Intel boys can put him to the question.
- Expansion: The PCs sucessfully eliminate the cell, but before they die some of their prisoners let slip that the trainer has already gone. The PCs must then chase him down before he can start again somewhere else - and he may have gone into the territory of a rival unit or uncooperative ally. Or worse, crossed a national boundary.
- Speaking of national boundaries, there may be no on-site instructor - instead the PCs find that the bomb makers were trained in a camp somewhere. For an easy mission the camp is in-country but well hidden and defended. More challenging, the camp is covert in their home nation: civilian agencies, fifth columnists and other nuisances may interfere with the effective liquidation of the camp. Worse still the camp may be in the territory of a neutral, nominal ally or even a hostile nation that claims not to be involved in this particular war. This may escalate above the PCs pay grade very quickly - and mistakes may risk international conflict.
- The "self forging" aspect of these weapons may be useful in bypassing certain prophecies of immunity to normal weapons.