Design for Munitions Safety

Course structure One course per year. Course lasts 2.5 days.
What you will learn

The current push for safer munitions is driven by requirements for Insensitive Munitions (IM) but the current definition of IM can be limiting in as much as there are many threats to munitions in service that are not covered by the IM test criteria. There is also an assumption that the selection of the explosive is the most important factor in achieving munitions safety yet it is possible to achieve IM with traditional TNT based explosives. The aim of this course it to take IM criteria as a starting point and develop the qualities needed for safe design through explosive formulation and design, warhead and rocket motor design and packaging design together with threat hazard assessment to develop a risk based approach to design for munitions safety.

It is hoped that the student taking this course will develop a holistic approach to munitions safety balancing a sense of the possible against need. This may allow the student (if within MOD) to approach industry with a greater insight into practical munitions design and testing.