Munition Development for POL Targets

Petroleum, Oil, and Lubricants (POL) are critical infrastructure components that play a vital role in military operations.  Consequently, destroying an adversary’s fuel supply is an effective method to dramatically reduce or eliminate the adversary’s ability to conduct operations while limiting potential human causalities.  As such, many military operations throughout history have targeted various POL sites including oil wells, storage facilities, maritime tankers, refineries, and pipelines.  While traditional weapons have demonstrated effects against these types of POL targets, studies have concluded that more serious damage could have been achieved if incendiary materials had been used more efficiently.  This is due to the fact that significant damage to POL targets occurs during secondary fires/explosions, not the initial event.  If the POL material at the target can be ignited and burned, the effective impact of a munition could be increased several times over.