AHEAD ammunition

Advanced hit efficiency and destruction (AHEAD) ammunition[1] is a type of airburst round ammunition that releases a cloud of sub-projectiles just ahead of a target, enabling it to engage conventional as well as low, slow and small (LSS) air threats including unmanned aerial vehicles and perform counter rocket, artillery, and mortar duties.

The 35 mm variety produced by Oerlikon Contraves splits each projectile into 152 tungsten[2] submunitions "that form a cone-shaped pattern to destroy a target's control surfaces and other vital components".

[6] In 2011, the government of the Republic of China in Taiwan procured itself a Skyguard system, which is based on the AHEAD ammunition.

[8] At the 2018 Euronaval trade show, the Rheinmetall Oerlikon Millennium Gun was noted as able to fire AHEAD ammunition.

[10] In January 2019, the South African Defence Force boasted about its upgraded ability to fire AHEAD ammunition at airborne targets via a networked multi-gun emplacement.