Reactive Tungsten Alloy For Inert Warheads

Physical Sciences Inc. and ATK Thiokol, Inc. propose to develop novel high-density tungsten-based reactive composites for application to inert kinetic energy munitions. These materials will be inert such that they do not reduce the projectile's Insensitive Munitions compliance. Their critical benefit will be to enhance projectile lethality by depositing a combined kinetic and chemical energy in the target, which is greater than the corresponding kinetic energy deposited by a non-reactive tungsten munition. This lethality enhancement will occur over most of the range of anticipated projectile (1300-5000 fps) and payload pellet (2000-6000 fps) velocities. Novel metallurgical fabrication techniques will be applied in these material developments. In Phase I, we shall fabricate samples of two different tungsten metal-oxidizer systems, and characterize their energetic and mechanical properties.