Insensitive ammunition
Insensitive munitions is a munition that is particularly safe to handle without accidentally detonate . It must therefore be able to withstand external influences such as mechanical shocks or heat. In addition, it must still explode as intended if it is used.
description
The insensitive ammunition may only burn and not detonate if heated, hit by other projectiles or fragments, or the detonation wave of a nearby explosion. The term is used, among other things, on warheads, bombs, rocket engines, the definition being very country-dependent.
In principle, there are three different approaches to guaranteeing insensitive ammunition:
- Protection through transport containers or sheaths: A limited external protection against mechanical or thermal damage can be built up using suitable transport containers or sheaths.
- Chemical stability of the propellant or explosive: By choosing suitable chemical mixtures, greater stability can be achieved.
- Housing construction: The housing in which the explosive is located can be constructed in such a way that ventilation or pressure reduction is possible and thus the explosion is avoided, i.e. it can be made possible, for example, for the explosive to burn without generating a critical pressure.
The construction of insensitive ammunition requires extensive and expensive tests. Therefore, simulation programs are often used today.
Insensitive explosives
Insensitive ammunition is practically always filled with fireproof and shockproof explosives. Usually polymer-bound explosives (PBX), TATB or other insensitive explosive mixtures are used here. This way, TATB won't explode if burned or hit by shrapnel.
For example, the insensitive explosive IMX-101 has been approved by the US Army as a replacement for TNT .
background
After the nuclear accident in Palomares on 17 January 1966 in which a B-52G bomber with four type B28RI - hydrogen bombs crashed, and the crash of another B-52 near the Thule Air Base on 21 January 1968 contaminated the Explosion of conventional explosives by spreading the radioactive material over large areas. Efforts were therefore made to find an explosive that would survive such a plane crash without exploding.
The Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory then developed the "Susan Test", which simulates the exposure to a plane crash. The Los Alamos National Laboratory developed based on this test, an insensitive explosive ( English insensitive high explosive, IHE ) for use in US nuclear weapons. These IHE withstand a ricochet at 460 m / s (conventional explosives detonate at 30 m / s).
use
Use in nuclear weapons
The insensitive explosive has been available to the US Army since 1979. By 1991 it was used in around 25% of nuclear weapons. Modern US and British nuclear weapons now have all primary charges from IHE. Here practically only TATB of the mixtures LX-17-0 and PBX-9502 are used.
Use in conventional weapons and civil use
To reduce the risk of uncontrolled detonations, more insensitive ammunition or explosives are used today in the field of conventional weapons. Highly explosive explosives, which easily explode due to the above-mentioned loads, are also replaced by them in the civilian sector.
See also
Individual evidence
- ^ Arnold F. Holleman , Egon Wiberg , Nils Wiberg : Textbook of Inorganic Chemistry , Verlag Walter de Gruyter, 2007, ISBN 9783110177701 , p. 96 [1]
- ^ The Worst Nuclear Disasters. time.com, accessed November 10, 2015 .
- ↑ High-performance drives for the military and civil market. Rheinmetall Defense, accessed on November 10, 2015 .
- ↑ Ammunition 40mm infantry ammunition. (No longer available online.) Diehl Defense, archived from the original on November 17, 2015 ; accessed on November 10, 2015 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ New explosives. (No longer available online.) Bavarian Patent Alliance, archived from the original on March 4, 2016 ; accessed on November 10, 2015 .
