proximity fuse

British  

noun

1. an electronically triggered device designed to detonate an explosive charge in a missile, etc, at a predetermined distance from the target

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Example Sentences

A proximity fuse onboard the interceptor is set to explode when it comes within 10 meters of the target.

From Slate • May 13, 2021

For example, Rosenberg gave the Soviets blueprints and a working copy of the proximity fuse, one of the United States military’s most closely guarded secrets.

From Newsweek • Aug. 7, 2013

Instead of repelling each other, these alien climates, once in proximity, fuse, generate electricity and create an environment larger and more complex than the sum of its parts.

From New York Times • Nov. 6, 2011

In the process of building such intricate gadgets as radar, sonar and the proximity fuse, electronics engineers learned to measure time down to fractions as small as one millionth of a second.

From Time Magazine Archive

If Joe's solution to the proximity fuse bombs had been offered before his emotional collapse, he could have accepted it grandly, and in so doing have made it his own.

From Space Tug by Leinster, Murray