Improvised Munitions Black Book, Volume 3

Introduction
During the formative years of the 1950's, the United States Army Special Forces relied heavily upon the C.I.A. to supply them with special weapons and techniques when conducting special operations. During the 1960's, there was still a heavy reliance upon the C.I.A-. to supply this function. However, at the same time the agency was phasing out of active covert operations so that this function could be performed by the various armed services on a short term contractual basis. As a part of this phase-out, the T.S.D. division of the agency destroyed huge stockpiles of various weapons and sabotage devices by burning in large magnesium lined pits. Because of this phase-out, Special Forces had to develop their own techniques and devices upon which to rely.

Frankford Arsenal served as a Research and Development Center for Special Forces from 1962 until it closed down in the late 1970's. During that time, it experimented with all types of improvised weapons and sabotage devices which could be fabricated and used by Special Forces personnel in a hostile environment.

One project of this development program was the Improvised Munitions program, which had the responsibility of producing a handbook that could be used by Special Forces personnel in the training and fabricating of various improvised weapons , explosives and incendiary devices. Throughout the 1960's, work on the Improvised Munitions Handbook proceeded smoothly with the production of 89 separate articles. However, during the early 1970's, at the time of the Viet Nam withdrawals, funds for the Improvised Munitions program were also cut.

At the time of the cut, and even later, independent research and development continued, with the discovery of revolutionary new ideas and techniques that could be applied to an unconventional warfare situation. Because of the funding cuts, these new ideas and techniques were never added to the handbook. Instead, they sat in filing cabinets within Frankford Arsenal until it finally closed down.

Volume 3 contains the very best of that research and development, along with the author's own experience and extensive knowledge of improvised explosive and incendiary devices.