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ordnance and wind farms

2pounder

Well-Known Member
Premium Member
Just watched Joanna Lumley on breakfast TV talking about how much UXO is on the sea bed that gets blown up when making wind farms and the damage to marine life when this is done. She stated that there is a device that can be used (same cost etc) that cuts a hole in the casing and burns the charge from the inside. But id is not used very often. News to me, discuss as they say.
 
that cuts a hole in the casing and burns the charge from the inside

You think that it's more environmetal friendly? Normally bombs -cut to pieces- are burnt in ovens with a special chimney that washes out the carcinogenic fumes that are released by burning explosives. Now they are released in the sea water. Such improvement......
 
Burns the charge out, obviously not thought about heat getting to the detonator.
 
I saw some deflagration trials in the 1980s: partially successful, it broke open thick walled shell and threw out some smouldering lumps of HE that soon went out. HE still in the munition burned vigorously and didn't produce much smoke. The thought then was that if a large munition was found that could not be moved, it could at least be broken up and partially neutralized by this method and the fuze could be targeted by other EOD methods, allowing the remaining pieces to be taken away for subsequent demolition. If the explosive burns vigorously enough it doesn't produce as much smoke as if it were in a conventional fire. We also had a play with the .50 de-armer, easy enough to use once you got used to setting the correct angle for attack. I never saw a rocket wrench used so cannot comment on that.
 
Termed as a "thermite burn" in the US, used mostly as described above and the identified method of disposal for a few systems that had no other options for render-safe. When I say "mostly as above", in US directives (TM 60 etc) I have never seen it done as a planned precursor for other procedures. Burn-out and/or detonate, then clean up whatever is left, explosively if necessary. I would not expect or intend to try a tool procedure following a burn per US procedure. There were also burn and crush (nearby detonation) procedures for some underwater systems, but that was a Navy thing and I have no information or experience with those procedures.
 
US SUBS - apologies if I gave the wrong impression - the fuze would be targeted before the filling.

Tim - I got an error message when trying to open your link, so could not read it.

Termed as a "thermite burn" in the US, used mostly as described above and the identified method of disposal for a few systems that had no other options for render-safe. When I say "mostly as above", in US directives (TM 60 etc) I have never seen it done as a planned precursor for other procedures. Burn-out and/or detonate, then clean up whatever is left, explosively if necessary. I would not expect or intend to try a tool procedure following a burn per US procedure. There were also burn and crush (nearby detonation) procedures for some underwater systems, but that was a Navy thing and I have no information or experience with those procedures.
 
If you are doing it correctly, that is part of the plan.
You expect a detonation. Every minute that it burns reduces the force of the detonation. If it burns completely, that is a bonus, but never expected.
 
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