Editing Composition B (section)

{{Short description|Explosive, a mix of RDX and TNT}}
[[File:DM41 hand grenade cutaway.png|thumb|300px|Post-World War II German [[M26 grenade#DM41_(West_Germany)|DM41 fragmentation hand grenade]] filled with Composition B. This example has been dissected to reveal the steel fragmentation sleeve and yellow explosive charge.]]

'''Composition B''' ('''Comp B'''), also known as '''Hexotol''' and '''Hexolite''' (among others), is a high [[explosive]] consisting of castable mixtures of [[RDX]] and [[Trinitrotoluene|TNT]].  It is used as the main explosive filling in [[artillery]] [[shell (projectile)|projectile]]s, [[rocket]]s, [[land mine]]s, [[hand grenades]], and various other [[munitions]].<ref name="Cooper - Explosives Engineering">{{cite book|last=Cooper|first=Paul W.|title=Explosives Engineering|year=1996|publisher=Wiley-VCH|isbn=978-0-471-18636-6}}</ref> It was also used for the [[explosive lens|explosive lenses]] in the first implosion-type [[nuclear weapon]]s developed by the United States.<ref name="Coster-Mullen">''Atom Bombs: The Top Secret Inside Story of Little Boy and Fat Man'', John Coster-Mullen, 2003</ref><ref name="NWFAQ">[http://www.nuclearweaponarchive.org/Nwfaq/Nfaq8.html#nfaq8.1.1 Nuclear Weapons FAQ section 8.1.1: The Design of Gadget, Fat Man, and "Joe 1" (RDS-1)], accessed August 10, 2009</ref>

The standard proportions of ingredients (by weight) are 59.5% RDX ([[detonation velocity]] of 8,750&nbsp;m/s) and 39.5% TNT (detonation velocity of 6,900&nbsp;m/s), [[phlegmatized]] with 1% [[paraffin wax]].<ref>Military Specification MIL-C-401</ref> Most commonly it is described as 60/40 RDX/TNT with 1% wax added.