Innovative Technologies for Reducing Unexploded Ordnance (UXO)

The need to prevent unexploded ordnance from littering the battlefield has been established by both the U.S. military and news media reports. Submunitions from cluster bombs such as the BLU-97 have recorded dud rates of between 4 and 16 percent depending on which report is quoted. These unexploded ordnance have had the unfortunate results of detonating when disturbed by human touch and handling, often with devastating injuries. The two firms listed above entered into a joint venture to research a fix to the unexploded ordnance problem through a Phase I SBIR sponsored by the Air Force’s Munitions Directorate at Eglin AFB. Two separate approaches to establish a neutralization feature for bomblet fuzes were researched. One approach was a chemical solution that would dissolve the energetic initiation components in the fuze preventing them from function shortly after the bomblet’s impact with the ground. The other solution was an electro-mechanical feature that would be added to the fuze to prevent or block the firing mechanism from function should the fuze fail to detonate.