Safer Battlefield Ordnance in Sight.

• Author: Foster, Sharon
• Position: Weapons systems research - Brief Article

This summer, the U.S. Army tested a self-destructing fuze that could help lower munitions' dud rate to 1.5 percent, by using a new pyrotechnic solution. The system was developed by Bulova Technology. The U.S. military began actively seeking self-destruct solutions for its fuzing in 1987. Today's arsenals of cluster bombs and the Improved Conventional Munitions (ICM) warheads on artillery and rocket systems present a most vexing problem for military planners. Each warhead carries between 10 and 1,000 separate bomblets and most rounds are fired or dropped in salvo, multiplying the potential for remaining lethal. After the Gulf War, battlefield unexploded dud cleanup cost $100 million and resulted in 30 deaths. The Pentagon...