Low Vulnerability Gun Propellants

The conventional gun propellants, that is, SB, DB, and NB, which are based on NC NC and NG NC, NG and NQ and NC, NG and RDX respectively, are highly prone to accidental initiation as a result of external stimuli fire (hot spall), 

In order to reduce this risk, low vulnerability ammunition (popularly known by the acronym LOVA) propellants are attractive alternatives for conventional gun propellants. The incorporation of materials possessing higher ignition temperatures into propellant formulations while maintaining superior energetics, is key to the development of LOVA/insensitive propellants [17, 18]. This is usually done by a judicious combination of energetic oxidizers and suitable binders which are described in the subsequent paragraphs. 

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