FOX-7 : a new insensitive explosive

Abstract : 1,1-Diamino-2,2-dinitroethene (FOX-7) is an energetic material developed by FOI Sweden in the late 1990s. Theoretical studies have predicted that the performance of FOX-7 should exceed that of RDX. FOX-7 is also significantly less sensitive than RDX, particularly to impact and frictions stimuli. Consequently, FOX-7 is an attractive ingredient for application in high performance, IM-compliant explosive compositions. AMRL evaluation of FOX-7 has focused on the synthesis, hazards characteristion and performance studies. Aspects of these research areas, including preliminary experimental data that validates the theoretical performance values, are detailed.