Proton grenade

"Master, your starfighter's cockpit is only large enough for one of us."
"I'm aware of that. Since you know where to find the hypermatter reactor, you'll plant the [proton] grenade. We don't want this ship blowing up too close to Fondor, so set the timer for two minutes. I'll ready the [Z-95] Headhunter for launch, and you'll ride it out. Where's your [CloakShape] starfighter?"
"Anchored near the [false Sun Runner] missile silo."
"I'll carry you to it so you can make your own way back to the Unitive, instead of clinging to the outside of my ship like a mynock. Go, now."

―Anakin Skywalker and Obi-Wan Kenobi during their mission to Fondor^[2]

Proton grenades, also known as proton charges, were small packets of explosives that were either thrown by hand, loaded into mortars, and sometimes loaded into a ship's bombing bay. These grenades were activated by flipping a small switch on one side, and exploded on contact.

Description[]

Proton grenades were handheld explosives built around a proton core, which was a smaller version of the warhead used in proton torpedoes. A proton grenade was more effective than a detonite charge, and contained almost the same destructive power as a thermal detonator.^[1]

Proton grenades were originally designed to breach the hulls of starships during boarding operations. They were also used in large-scale demolitions projects. The grenade could be affixed to a surface via a magnetic plate at the bottom. The casing was comprised of prestressed metal and surrounded a shaped proton charge. The shaped charged funnelled the full force of the explosion towards the magnetic plate, and the blast was capable punching a hole through up to a meter and a half of materials such as permacite. When used during a boarding operation, the charge blasted through armor plating, exposing the interior of the ship to hard vacuum. An electromagnetic pulse disabled electronic devices within a range of twenty meters, including computers, droids, and blasters.^[1]

Activating a proton grenade was a two-stage process that was intended to prevent accidental detonation. The first step consisted of twisting the arming mechanism, which primed a battery to send an electrical charge to the proton core. The second step was depressing the activation plunger which started the timer. The timer could be set for any time up to twenty minutes, and the grenade could be disarmed at any point by pressing the twist plunger release.^[1]

History[]

In 23 BBY, before the Clone Wars, 18-year-old Anakin Skywalker used a hypermatter reactor-planted proton grenade to destroy the counterfeit Sun Runnertransport fabricated by Groodo the Hutt in his Jedi-foiled scheme to destroy the Fondor Shipyards.^[2]

Proton grenades were used mostly by the Confederacy of Independent Systems, Rebels, planetary defense forces, and smugglers. However, they were also occasionally used by the official military, (Galactic Republic, Galactic Empire, New Republic), but the thermal detonator was generally preferred. Imperial spacetroopers were known to use this weapon to breach ship hulls.

During the Battle of Endor, Han Solo and his commandos used several Merr-Sonn 7-PrGs to destroy the Endor shield generator bunker.^[1]