Characteristics of the Insensitive Pressed Plastic Bonded Explosive, DXD-59

The technical objective of this investigation is to develop an explosive formulation that will maintain operational performance but is less sensitive to initiation by unplanned stimuli. The pressed, plastic bonded explosive composition, DXD-59 is composed of HMX, HyTemp acrylate binder and plasticizer. Results from initial characterization and large scale gap test indicate that DXD-59 exhibits relatively insensitive behavior with high detonation velocity. Susan test results are also reported in this paper.