F1 grenade (Australia)

The F1 grenade (formally Grenade, Hand, Fragmentation, F1) is manufactured by Thales Australia exclusively for the Australian Defence Force as a primary defensive anti-personnel hand grenade. The F1 hand grenade was tested and manufactured by Australian Defence Industries (now Thales Australia) in the mid-1990s and eventually entered into service with the Australian Defence Force (ADF) in the late 1990s. The grenade is the first Australian manufactured grenade utilised by the ADF, as previous grenades include the British-made Mills bomb, used in World War II and the Korean War, and the American-made M26 grenade, which was utilised by Australian forces in the Vietnam War and was replaced by the F1 grenade. The F1 hand grenade has been deployed with the Australian Defence Force to a range of conflicts, including East Timor (UNTAET, UNMISET and UNMIT), Afghanistan (War in Afghanistan), Iraq (Iraq War) and the Solomon Islands (RAMSI). The F1 hand grenade has been involved in numerous safety incidents during both manufacturing and deployment within the Australian Defence Force. These incidents not only posed safety risks to the civilian employees involved in the grenades manufacturing, but also to the safety of members of the Australian Defence Force deployed overseas. The first significant safety incident involving the F1 occurred on 14 November 1995, at an Australian Defence Industries shell filling factory in St Marys, New South Wales. The detonation occurred within a grenade testing facility at 8:36 a.m., while 4 employees were dismantling a defective F1 grenade. During the dismantling process, the grenade accidentally detonated on a workbench surrounded by the 4 employees, all of whom were injured as a result, two of them critically. Despite criticisms regarding employee safety, as no employees were behind a blast shield or wearing body armour, a coroner's inquest into the matter was never held. On 12 September 2007, a defence contractor was seriously injured by the accidental detonation of an F1 grenade at the Defence Proof and Experimental Establishment in Graytown, Victoria.