Publications (Technical Reports)

NATO Explosives Safety and Munitions Risk Management (ESMRM) policy prescribes a risk analysis when Quantity Distances (QD) cannot be met.

For trinitrotoluene (TNT) and explosive formulations containing TNT (e.g. Composition B), TNT exudation in projectiles, bombs, and rockets has been a recurring problem since the early 1920s.

An Insensitive Munition (IM) signature is determined by the munition response to various operational and peace time threats.

The qualification process of energetic materials (EM) is a mandatory step in the development and production of energetic materials for military use.

When dealing with energetic materials, TNT equivalency is commonly used for different purposes. For scientific purposes, it is a means to compare the explosive effects delivered by different energetic compositions, by expressing them in terms of an equivalent TNT detonation.

This document describes the results of an international historical review of artillery projectile premature explosions. The purpose of this review is to document artillery gun launch incidents that were potentially caused by projectile explosive fill issues.

Blast effects are part of the performance characteristics of explosive materials, usually in comparison with reference explosives like TNT. Especially for sub-detonative events, blast effects are hardly predictable without complex numerical simulations.

Defects in energetic materials or munitions can alter their safety and performance characteristics, potentially leading to failure and causing serious damage to military equipment and injury to service personnel and the public.

Following many discussions and multiple iterations over two years, MSIAC has produced a largely self-consistent taxonomy and lexicon of terms related to defects in energetic materials and munition systems, based on the paradigm of materials science and engineering.

MSIAC maintains a Hazard Classification (HC) database for Ammunition and Explosives (AE) with 16 contributing nations. Governmental personnel from MSIAC member nations are able to access the data through the MSIAC secure website.