warhead

[ wawr-hed ]

/ ˈwɔrˌhɛd /

the forward section of a self-propelled missile, bomb, torpedo, or the like, containing the explosive, chemical, or atomic charge.

Origin of warhead

First recorded in 1895–1900; war¹ + head

As the missile closes on its target the warhead explodes before the missile strikes the airplane.

MH17 Is the World’s First Open-Source Air Crash Investigation |Clive Irving |July 22, 2014 |DAILY BEAST
In this way the missile does not need pinpoint accuracy: widely spread supersonic shrapnel from the warhead is deadly.

MH17 Is the World’s First Open-Source Air Crash Investigation |Clive Irving |July 22, 2014 |DAILY BEAST
Those teams would try to dispose of the stocks of chemical agent before they were poured into a warhead or artillery shell.

Obama’s Plan B for Securing Assad’s Chemical Weapons |Eli Lake |September 23, 2013 |DAILY BEAST
“Many of my South Korean colleagues argue they can put a warhead on a missile and may have done so already,” Bennett says.

How Scared Should You Be About North Korea? |Eli Lake |April 11, 2013 |DAILY BEAST

That about a kilo is at issue in Moldova makes talk of a warhead far off, but it is hardly harmless.

A New Nuclear Scare Rocks Eastern Europe |Owen Matthews, Anna Nemtsova |June 30, 2011 |DAILY BEAST
There was no reason to suppose that the warhead had been temperature-controlled during the pre-launch countdown.

Pushbutton War |Joseph P. Martino
He decided that the most likely event was that the warhead was hidden by one of the other fragments.

Pushbutton War |Joseph P. Martino
"Going to be close but we'll make it," Crag said, thinking of the warhead.

First on the Moon |Jeff Sutton
If Gotch's figures were right the warhead would strike in four minutes.

First on the Moon |Jeff Sutton
To a radar set on the ground near the target, each fragment was indistinguishable from the nose cone carrying the warhead.

Pushbutton War |Joseph P. Martino

warhead

/ (ˈwɔːˌhɛd) /

the part of the fore end of a missile or projectile that contains explosives