O-072 NIMIC Activities

The NATO Insensitive Munitions Information Center (NIMIC) has been working towards advancing insensitive munitions (IM) technology for over 10 years. This paper describes some of the current Energetic Material areas of interest in which NIMIC has been actively involved.

Use of small-scale testing and modelling to help in the hazard assessment of munitions subjected to a threat, such as fragment impact, is of interest to the IM community. Such an approach can lead to a greater understanding of the mechanisms of ignition and reaction growth and subsequent reaction violence, which allow greater confidence in the assessment of the hazard associated with a munition.

NIMIC has also been active compiling a database, the NIMIC Energetic Materials Compendium, containing data on reduced vulnerability high explosive and gun and rocket propellant formulations. It contains data on composition, sensitivity and performance of over 500 formulations.

Requests for information on ageing of energetic materials and the consequences for IM have been made to NIMIC on a number of occasions during last year. As a consequence, NIMIC staff, along with experts in the NIMIC nations, are writing a review of current understanding of how ageing affects IM. This will include an exchange of ageing data between workers in the NIMIC nations.

The paper includes a summary of progress on these topics and discussion on how NIMIC will focus effort in the future.