Last year, when I visited Brazilian Air Force’s center responsable for development of new weapons they said Brazil is one of the few countries which process (I don’t know if this would be the right word) the RDX (I think this is its name, but I’m not really sure) explosive.
A few days later, while visiting Avibras (which produces the Astros II MRLS) they said they fit their rockets’ HE-warheads with RDM explosive.
Could someone comment a bit more about these and/or other explosives used nowadays and/or do some kind of comparison of them?
Regards,
Primer
By: Primer55 - 28th August 2004 at 16:38
Thanks for the info, guys.
This RDX explosive is used in an anti-runway bomb/rocket (called BAPI – Bomba Anti-Pista / Anti-runway bomb) which is pretty much similar to the French Durandal.
Regards,
Primer
By: Baliga - 24th August 2004 at 15:46
I think RDX is a Plastic type explosive and categorized as C4 type. Also used for shaped charges, and had read that they may be used in Land mines and other sabotage kind of work, but not as primary explosive in rockets/Shells, Not sure of shaped charges in Anti-Armor shell to defeat the armor protection.
I am not sure but there are few explosives more powerful than RDX, but not widely used in Military as they are not stable.
By: Arabella-Cox - 24th August 2004 at 09:48
RDX or Hexogen or Cyclonite is a powerful “High” explosive. A high explosive is an explosive that is rather insensitive and needs a primary explosive or low explosive to make it explode. In other words if you get a lighter and try to burn RDX it will burn, but not explode. You can hit it with a hammer and it will not explode. If you use a small amount of low explosive like Mercury Fulminate or Lead Fulminate you can make it detonate… which basically means you can make it burn supersonically.
RDX is about 30% more powerful than TNT and is soft and usually orange in colour and can be molded into shapes.
Sign In
August 21, 2004 at 8:26 pm