Magnesium incendiary
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| Type | Incendiary |
|---|---|
| Filling | Magnesium or magnesium alloy, with a thermite igniter |
| Used against | Adapted Beckons and other gas-filled Beckons |
| In service | From 2023 |
| Used by | Armed forces of the European Federation; H&A field crews |
A magnesium incendiary is an incendiary weapon whose filling of magnesium, or a magnesium alloy, continues to burn inside the sulfur hexafluoride of an Adapted Beckon. Sulfur hexafluoride smothers ordinary fires, and an Adapted Beckon vents it to put out fires around its base. Burning magnesium uses the same gas as an oxidiser, and releases about as much heat burning in it as it does in oxygen. A magnesium charge placed inside a Beckon's trunk cannot be put out by venting, and burns through the gas cells around it.
Principle
Sulfur hexafluoride does not burn and does not support ordinary combustion. It is a strong oxidiser for reactive metals: magnesium burning in it forms magnesium fluoride and magnesium sulfide, releasing about 25.7 MJ per kilogram of magnesium, against 24.8 MJ burning in oxygen. Lithium and aluminium react in the same way, and lithium burning in sulfur hexafluoride is used as a closed heat source in some torpedo engines.
The charges are ignited with thermite, which carries its own oxygen. Once burning, a charge inside a gas cell heats and breaches the cells around it and takes their gas as oxidiser, and the venting the Beckon uses against fire feeds the charge.
Types
- Trunk charges, placed by hand or driven into the trunk on a spike, for use against single Beckons by field crews.
- Rifle grenades and mortar bombs with a penetrating nose, for use at a distance.
- Aerial bomblets for large stands of Beckons.
A charge works best placed low on the trunk, where the gas is densest and where a breach lets the Beckon's remaining gas drain out past it.
Use
Magnesium incendiaries entered service in 2023, as Adapted Beckons spread into temperate Europe and ordinary fire proved slow against them. They are used chiefly against stationary targets, often after an ordinary burn has made the Beckon vent. A trunk that has been breached and emptied of gas burns from the inside as a hollow tree does in a forest fire, with flame drawn up through the trunk and out of the upper breaches.
Hazards
Burning magnesium cannot be put out with water, which makes it burn more fiercely, and is smothered with dry sand. The smoke of a burning Beckon contains hydrogen fluoride and other products of the breakdown of sulfur hexafluoride, and crews wear acid-gas respirators. The weapon's light is bright enough to damage the eyes at close range.