L-034 Summary of 1996 NIMIC-KTA-4-20 Workshop on Cookoff and XDT Mechanisms

A four-day, invitational workshop sponsored by the NATO Insensitive Munitions Information Center (NIMIC) was held between 12-15 March 1996 at China Lake, CA with the NAWC Insensitive Munitions community acting as hosts for the event. NIMIC sponsored this workshop in conjunction with a Key Technology Area (KTA 4-20) of TTCP, involving technical experts from government and industrial organizations within many of the NIMIC nations, including Canada, France, The Netherlands, Norway, the U.K. and the U.S. Several years ago TTCP chartered the KTA 4-20 group to continue investigating two of the most pressing needs to result from previous IM studies (within the WAG-11 committee) - that is, the need to further understand and predict the level of violence from a cookoff initiation and to define and attempt to understand non-prompt shock initiations (XDT). The purpose of the NIMIC workshop was thus to conduct discussions and exchange information within these technology areas. Forty-three specialists, including 27 from the U.S., 13 from non-U.S. NIMIC nations and 3 NIMIC staff attended the meeting. Twenty-seven formal presentations were made on recent Cookoff and XDT-related technology. Following the formal presentations, the attendees divided into four groups; three to prioritize cookoff needs and discuss the most important needs (as perceived by each group), and one group to address non-prompt shock mechanisms. This paper summarizes the composite findings, conclusions and recommendations from the splinter groups of the workshop. The material for this paper has been abstracted from Volumes 1 & 2 of the NIMIC workshop report identified as NIMICS-172-961 and NIMIC-BS-434-962