O-033 Workshop on Insensitive Munitions Testing - Report on Phase 1

Over the last five years, NIMIC has organised a series of Workshops for its nations on the threat stimuli which are relevant to the concerns of making munitions less hazardous (MURAT/IM). These workshops have covered the subjects of Bullet/Fragment Impact, Cookoff (Slow and Fast), Sympathetic Reaction and Shaped Charge Jet Impingement. A general aspect that emerged from the discussions and conclusions of these workshops was that there are deficiencies in the current test methods assigned to measure IM characteristics. These deficiencies will ultimately impact upon the assessment of a munition against the IM Requirements of STANAG 4439 and influence the content of AOP-39, Guidance on the Development, Assessment and Testing of IM, which provides details on the methodology for an IM testing regime. Consequently, NIMIC decided to hold a Workshop in 1997 on IM Testing. The aim of the workshop is: to write guidance on full scale IM testing in order to improve confidence in and achieve international acceptability and broader applicability of test results.