Vanderbilt-Army collaboration yields improved grappling hook for combat engineers | School of Engineering [Video]

A grappling hook or grapnel is a fierce looking object with multiple claws or flukes attached to a rope or cable. It is thrown, dropped, sunk, projected, or fastened directly by hand so at least one claw can catch and hold on to an object. For U.S. Army combat engineers, a grapnel is part of a breacher kit, tools used for a forward advance in warfare. A grapnel can help safely defuse landmines and clear other dangerous obstacles, an important tool for a soldier in an advance position when executing breaching operations in combat.

Three Vanderbilt engineering undergraduates and the U.S. Army’s Fort Campbell (Ky) EaglewerxApplied Tactical Center recently modified the Army’s current …