Insensitive Munitions - Insensitive High Explosives

Insensitive munitions are almost always filled with fire resistant, shock resistant insensitive high explosives (IHE) such as triaminotrinitrobenze (TATB) or various insensitive explosive mixtures, or plastic/polymer-bonded explosives, which are similar to reactive materials. TATB particularly will not detonate if impacted by typical fragments or burned in a fire.

A new IHE called Insensitive Munitions Explosive (IMX-101), has been qualified and approved by the U.S. Army to replace trinitrotoluene (TNT). IMX-101 is said to have the “same lethality as traditional TNT, but is far less likely to explode if dropped, shot at or hit by a roadside bomb during transport”. This IHE has been tested and proven to be a safer alternative within large-caliber projectiles currently utilized by the Army and Marine Corps.

Another IHE, experimental, is FOX-7.

IHEs often combine amino groups and nitro groups in the same molecule.

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