PBX with Insensitive RDX - a New EIDS-Substance for Underwater Use

摘要

Plastic Bonded Explosives (PBX) have so far been the most important solution for insensitive munitions. The principal idea is to decrease the sensitivity by diluting the explosive ingredients in inert and flexible polymeric matrices. However, not many novel explosives have come to practical use in insensitive munitions. A majority of the PBX formulations used are based on RDX or HMX. One reason is of course the costs involved in scaling up and qualifying new explosives and that the number of potential candidates is rather limited. An interesting approach is therefore to modify RDX so it becomes less sensitive. In this presentation we will present such a type of RDX and demonstrate how the sensitivity has been drastically reduced in the PBX underwater explosive named FOXIT by using such a modified RDX. The test results conducted by PvTT, and the comparison with other similar products in this paper will show how significant the new RDX imparts the high degree of insensitivity to this explosive.