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Picatinny Arsenal Explosive (PAX)

Since the mid 1980s, Picatinny has developed over 24 Picatinny Arsenal Explosive (PAX) formulations. New combinations of energetic "fill" binders and, in some cases, plasticizers continue to be evaluated in search of the Army's next generation more powerful explosive.

One of the most significant challenges to Picatinny was the development of a new main charge melt-pour energetic, PAX-21. This new explosive is designed to be low cost and requires little or no refacilitization for production or projectile filling. It contains no TNT and is slightly less toxic than the Composition-B it replaces. Not only is it safe for use in production, PAX-21 also exhibits good IM and thermal stress characteristics and low shock sensitivity.

PAX-2A was the Army's first high performing IM (insensitive munition) explosive. It is less sensitive to initiation by outside stimuli, but retains all the requisite performance capabilities of the high explosive that was used in the past. It has matured through extensive loading, performance testing and hazard threat analysis testing in various current and future warhead configuration of the Army, Navy, and Air Force munitions systems. This IM explosive is now considered to be a viable alternative to current HMX formulations and has been successfully demonstrated in Hellfire, Javelin, M830A1, HE-WAM, SADARM, and XM915 Dual Purpose Improved Conventional Munitions (DPICM) XM80 grenade submunitions.

The vast majority of cannon lunched unitary warheads use melt pour explosives for cost and surge capability. Traditional melt pour explosives have focused on fragmentation capability. A new family of low cost reduced sensitivity melt pour explosives based on 2,4-dinitroanisole, RDX or HMX and AP has been developed in response to Insensitive Munition [IM] requirements.

Development of Insensitive Munition [IM] melt pour explosives has been next to none. Picatinny Arsenal and Thiokol Propulsion developed the first melt pour explosive (PAX-21) to exhibit IM properties (currently in production). The PAX-21 success led to increased interest in all areas of IM melt pour explosives I.e., cost, producibility, facilitization, etc.

Family of PAX

• PAX-21- Comp B replacement: RDX, DNAN, AP and trace amounts of MNA (for processability) currently in production
• PAX-24 - TNT replacement: DNAN, AP and MNA
• PAX-25 - Comp B replacement: RDX, DNAN, AP and MNA (different proportions for RDX, DNAN, and AP) better performance than PAX-21
• PAX-26 - Tritonal replacement: DNAN, Al, AP, MNA
• PAX-28 - Unitary warheads: RDX, DNAN, Al, AP, MNA. An equivalency factor of 1.62 was determined between Composition B and PAX-28
• PAX-40 - Octol replacement: HMX, DNAN, MNA
• PAX-41 - Cyclotol replacement: RDX, DNAN, MNA

One advantage is the ease of loading of melt pour explosives into various munition items. Typically less expensive than pressed explosives to manufacture, load and facilitization. Increased IM characteristics without decreasing performance. Performance and shock sensitivity can be tailored for a given system based on particle size and the percentage of ingredients. PAX-40 & 41 exceed COMP B's detonation velocity. PAX-40 & 41 are less shock sensitive than COMP B.