An explosive is a reactive substance that contains a great amount of potential energy that can produce an explosion if released suddenly, usually accompanied by the production of light, heat, sound, and pressure. An explosive charge is a measured quantity of explosive material, which may either be composed solely of one ingredient or be a mixture containing at least two substances.
Cordite is a family of smokeless propellants developed and produced in Britain since 1889 to replace black powder as a military firearm propellant. Like modern gunpowder, cordite is classified as a low explosive because of its slow burning rates and consequently low brisance. These produce a subsonic deflagration wave rather than the supersonic detonation wave produced by brisants, or high explosives. The hot gases produced by burning gunpowder or cordite generate sufficient pressure to propel a bullet or shell to its target, but not so quickly as to routinely destroy the barrel of the gun.
Polymer-bonded explosives, also called PBX or plastic-bonded explosives, are explosive materials in which explosive powder is bound together in a matrix using small quantities of a synthetic polymer. PBXs are normally used for explosive materials that are not easily melted into a casting, or are otherwise difficult to form.
A shell, in a military context, is a projectile whose payload contains an explosive, incendiary, or other chemical filling. Originally it was called a bombshell, but "shell" has come to be unambiguous in a military context. A shell can hold a tracer.
The Sporting Arms and Ammunition Manufacturers' Institute is an association of American manufacturers of firearms, ammunition, and components. SAAMI is an accredited standards developer that publishes several American National Standards that provide safety, reliability, and interchangeability standards for commercial manufacturers of firearms, ammunition, and components. In addition, SAAMI publishes information on the safe and responsible transportation, storage, and use of those products.
Insensitive munitions are munitions that are designed to withstand stimuli representative of severe but credible accidents. The current range of stimuli are shock, heat and adjacent detonating munitions. A munition can have its vulnerability reduced by a number of means used on their own or in combination such as a reduced vulnerability energetic material, design features, additions or changes to packaging etc. The munition must still retain its terminal effect and performance within acceptable parameters.
Composition B, also known as Hexotol and Hexolite, is a high explosive consisting of castable mixtures of RDX and TNT. It is used as the main explosive filling in artillery projectiles, rockets, land mines, hand grenades and various other munitions. It was also used for the explosive lenses in the first implosion-type nuclear weapons developed by the United States.
FOX-7 or 1,1-diamino-2,2-dinitroethylene(DADNE) is an insensitive high explosive compound. It was first synthesized in 1998 by the Swedish National Defence Research Institute (FOS). The name FOX-7 is derived from the acronym of the Swedish Defence Research Agency (FOI), with the I replaced by an X to indicate an explosive, as in RDX and HMX.
Nitroguanidine - sometimes abbreviated NGu - is a colorless, crystalline solid that melts at 257 °C and decomposes at 254 °C. Nitroguanidine is an extremely insensitive but powerful high explosive. Wetting it with > 20 wt.-% water effects desensitization from HD 1.1 down to HD 4.1 . Nitroguanidine is used as an energetic material, i.e., propellant or high explosive, precursor for insecticides, and for other purposes.
The United States Navy formed the Weapon System Explosives Safety Review Board (WSESRB) in 1967 as a result of two deadly accidents involving explosive ordnance aboard US aircraft carriers: the 1966 USS Oriskany fire, and the 1967 USS Forrestal fire. The subsequent investigation recommended an independent review process be established. The report highlighted the need to ensure explosives safety requirements are met for all munitions introduced to the Fleet.
NATO EPVAT testing is one of the three recognized classes of procedures used in the world to control the safety and quality of firearms ammunition.
Holston Army Ammunition Plant (HSAAP) manufactures Research Department Explosive (RDX) and High Melting Explosive (HMX) for ammunition production and development. It is a government-owned and contractor-operated (GOCO) facility that is part of the US Army Joint Munitions Command.
Ammunition is the material fired, scattered, dropped, or detonated from any weapon or weapon system. Ammunition is both expendable weapons and the component parts of other weapons that create the effect on a target.
The Louisiana Army Ammunition Plant, formerly known as the Louisiana Ordnance Plant or as The Shell Plant, is an inactive 14,974-acre (60.60 km2) plant to load, assemble and pack ammunitions items. During production from 1942 to 1994, the Army disposed of untreated explosives-laden wastewater in on-site lagoons, contaminating soil, sediments and groundwater with hazardous chemicals. It is a government-owned, contractor-operated facility located off U.S. Highway 80 in Webster Parish near Doyline between Minden and Bossier City, Louisiana. Part of LAAP is known as Camp Minden, a training center for the Louisiana Army National Guard. LAAP and Camp Minden have become nearly interchangeable terms, with most references to Camp Minden.
IMX-101 is a high-performance insensitive high explosive composite mixture developed by BAE Systems and the United States Army to replace TNT in artillery shells. IMX stands for "Insensitive Munitions eXplosives", which refers to the purpose of IMX-101: to provide explosive force equivalent to TNT without its sensitivity to shocks such as gunfire, explosions from improvised explosive devices, fire, and shrapnel. For example, it is believed that a training incident in Nevada which killed seven Marines would not have occurred with the new explosive. On March 23, 2013, the United States Army ordered $780 million worth of the explosive, with a production of millions of pounds annually, to be produced by BAE at Holston Army Ammunition Plant in Tennessee. The new explosive will cost $8 per pound, compared to $6 per pound for TNT. As of 2023, IMX-101 filled shells are being used in the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine.
The Ballistic Research Laboratory (BRL) was a leading U.S. Army research establishment situated at Aberdeen Proving Ground, Maryland that specialized in ballistics as well as vulnerability and lethality analysis. BRL served as a major Army center for research and development in technologies related to weapon phenomena, armor, electronic devices, and high-speed computing. In 1992, BRL was disestablished and its mission, personnel, and facilities were incorporated into the newly created Army Research Laboratory (ARL).
The M549 is a high-explosive rocket-assisted (HERA) 155 mm howitzer round developed for use by the US military in order to add additional range to standard howitzers, with a maximum range 30.1 km (18.7 mi) from a M198 howitzer. The projectile has two distinctive pre-assembled components—the high-explosive (HE) warhead and the rocket motor, making it a form of rocket-assisted projectile. The warhead is fabricated from high-fragmentation steel for increased effectiveness in terms of damage caused to target and contains a bulk-filled explosive.
Defence Explosive Factory Maribyrnong is a heritage-listed military installation and former munitions factory at Cordite Avenue, Maribyrnong, Victoria, Australia. It was added to the Australian Commonwealth Heritage List on 22 June 2004.
Guanylurea dinitramide is a novel insensitive high explosive.
