BAE Systems IMX-101 Explosive Approved to Replace TNT in U.S. Army Artillery

ROCKVILLE, Mary­land — The U.S. Army has approved a new BAE Sys­tems explo­sive as the first safer and effec­tive alter­na­tive to replace TNT in artillery. The deci­sion is a major step toward the pro­duc­tion and use of a new fam­i­ly of high-per­for­mance insen­si­tive muni­tions that are designed not to det­o­nate under con­di­tions oth­er than the intend­ed mis­sion.

The company’s IMX-101 explo­sive is sig­nif­i­cant­ly more sta­ble than con­ven­tion­al TNT, mak­ing it safer for troops to trans­port and han­dle. TNT typ­i­cal­ly behaves vio­lent­ly if sub­ject­ed to an acci­den­tal stim­u­lus, such as fire. TNT-loaded muni­tions also are sus­cep­ti­ble to ene­my attack. 

Con­verse­ly, the new gen­er­a­tion of insen­si­tive muni­tions is designed to sus­tain chem­i­cal sta­bil­i­ty when sub­ject­ed to mechan­i­cal shocks, fire, and impact by shrap­nel, while per­form­ing as intend­ed, when needed. 

“IMX-101 explo­sive has the poten­tial to rev­o­lu­tion­ize mil­i­tary ord­nance,” said Jer­ry Ham­monds, vice pres­i­dent and gen­er­al man­ag­er of ord­nance solu­tions for BAE Sys­tems. “This trans­for­ma­tion will help save lives on and off the battlefield.” 

The Army has ini­tial­ly slat­ed the explo­sive for­mu­la­tion as a TNT replace­ment in the new IM M795 155-mil­lime­ter artillery muni­tion. It also has deemed IMX-101 a suit­able replace­ment for any large-cal­iber muni­tions requir­ing the ener­getic per­for­mance equiv­a­lent to TNT. 

BAE Sys­tems devel­oped IMX-101 in part­ner­ship with the Army at the Hol­ston Army Ammu­ni­tion Plant in Kingsport, Ten­nessee. BAE Sys­tems man­ages and oper­ates the Hol­ston plant for the gov­ern­ment, with a total of about 700 employ­ees and subcontractors. 

About BAE Sys­tems

BAE Sys­tems is a glob­al defense, secu­ri­ty and aero­space com­pa­ny with approx­i­mate­ly 107,000 employ­ees world­wide. The Com­pa­ny deliv­ers a full range of prod­ucts and ser­vices for air, land and naval forces, as well as advanced elec­tron­ics, secu­ri­ty, infor­ma­tion tech­nol­o­gy solu­tions and cus­tomer sup­port ser­vices. In 2009 BAE Sys­tems report­ed sales of £22.4 bil­lion (US$ 36.2 billion). 

For fur­ther infor­ma­tion, please contact 

Neil Franz, BAE Sys­tems
Tel: +1 301 838 6112 Mobile: +1 240 687 0127
neil.franz@baesystems.com

www.baesystems.com

Face­book and/or on Twit­ter