O-073 Insensitive Munitions and Ageing

The effects of ageing of energetic materials and the consequences for Insensitive Munitions (IM) have been brought to the attention of the NIMIC on a number of occasions over the last few years. Ageing is of interest to the IM community because it has an impact on munition cost of ownership and could affect the decision to move towards IM. In addition, ageing of the energetic material may lead to a change in the IM-ness of munitions.

Currently, we have little long term ageing experience for many of the new reduced vulnerability formulations, which includes HTPB containing warheads. Therefore, to remedy this situation it is recommended that nations share the available information. To facilitate this action the NIMIC is collecting and reviewing relevant ageing data.