Projectile Demilitarization Facilities

The Autoclave Demil System was designed and developed by ARDEC. A large scale autoclave system was designed, built and installed based on the ARDEC design and was used to reclaim approximately 10.5 million pounds of TNT which was later used in the production of new bombs for the Air Force. The fully functional prototype system can be used to demil 60mm, 81mm, 120mm, and 155mm projectiles. The system is also used to demil projectiles received from onsite EOD personnel. This includes foreign munitions recently removed from Southwest Asia. Projectiles demilled in the autoclave are sent to Bldg 800 to be thermally decontaminated to 5X status. Explosives drained from the projectiles are captured in a 25-gallon Melt Kettle where the composition of the material can be analyzed utilizing Near Infrared (NIR) Compositional Analysis System.