Incendiary device Incendiary device Incendiary weapons, incendiary devices or incendiary bombs are weapons designed to start fires or destroy sensitive equipment using fire (and sometimes used as anti-personnel weaponry), that use materials such as napalm, thermite, magnesium powder, chlorine trifluoride, or white phosphorus. Though colloquially often known as bombs, they are not explosives but in fact are designed to slow the process of chemical reactions and use ignition rather than detonation to start and or maintain the reaction. Napalm for example, is petroleum especially thickened with certain chemicals into a 'gel' to slow, but not stop, combustion, releasing energy over a longer
High-explosive incendiary less practical for anti-tank work, and more useful for destroying “soft” targets such as air bases, trenches, or bunkers, in which they can create fires of over 1000 degrees Celsius. Incendiary shells are no longer in use by many countries, due to bans on the use of phosphorus weapons. Armor-piercing shot and shell penetrate the target using kinetic energy before the incendiary charge ignites, smothering the crew in flames, detonating ammunition, and destroying the target. High-explosive incendiary In warfare, High-explosive incendiary (HEI) is a type of ammunition specially designed to impart energy and therefore damage to its target in one