155mm DPICM Dual-Purpose Improved Conventional Munitions

Dual-Purpose Improved Conventional Munitions (DPICM) is an artillery or surface-to-surface missile warhead designed to burst into sub-munitions at an optimum altitude and distance from the desired target for dense area coverage. The sub-munitions are designed for both antiarmor and antipersonnel attack. Some sub-munitions may be designed for delayed reaction or mobility denial (mines). The air-to-surface variety of this kind of munition is better known as a cluster bomb.

Development work for DPICM projectiles began in the late 1960s, with the first projectile, the 105 mm M444 entering service in 1961, though the submunitions were simple bounding anti-personnel grenades. Production of the M444 ended in the early 1990s.

The first true DPICM was the 155 mm M483, produced in the 1970s. By 1975 an improved version the M483A1 was being used. The projectile carried 88 M42/M46 grenade like dual purpose submunitions. The 155 mm M864 projectile entered production in 1987, and featured a base bleed that enhances the range of the projectile, although it still carries the same M42/M46 grenades. The base bleed mechanism reduces the submunition load to 72. Work was budgeted in 2003 to retrofit the M42/M46 grenades with self-destruct fuzes to reduce the problem of “dud” submunitions.