Munitions Safety - How Safe

The purpose of this paper is to describe some of the factors which been influencing the way in which the UK Navy safety authorities judge the safety of Naval armament Stores. This judgement has been, and will remain, largely a question of the safety authorities acquiring sufficient confidence that the store is and will remain safe throughout its life in a specified environment. This confidence is derived from a variety of different sources figure I. Knowing that the store has been designed and built to agreed standards and to satisfy specific requirements provides a large measure of this confidence. These requirements specific amongst other things that only propellants and explosives with acceptable properties can be used. A understanding of how the store is to be handled is a further confidence builder. Finally confirmation that the all-up store is safe is provided by a series of munitions safety tests which provide a comfortable margin of safety. This process is a qualitative one but nevertheless involves the safety authority comparing the perceived confidence against a imaginary threshold. Provided confidence is above this threshold then stores will be brought into service. If ever they drop below the threshold then they may be withdrawn until confidence is restored. By this means the UK Navy have been assured that the weapons they carry will not endanger their ships.