Composition B

Composition B (Comp B), also known as Hexotol and Hexolite (among others), is a high explosive consisting of castable mixtures of RDX and TNT.

It is used as the main explosive filling in artillery projectiles, rockets, land mines, hand grenades, and various other munitions.

Composition B was extremely common in Western nations' munitions and was the standard explosive filler from early World War II until the early 1950s, when less sensitive explosives such as Composition H6 began to replace it in many weapons.

[citation needed] M65 bombs from 1953 containing degraded Composition B were responsible for much of the damage in the 1967 USS Forrestal fire.

IMX-101 is slowly replacing Comp B in US military artillery shells, and IMX-104 [5] in mortar rounds and hand grenades.

Post-World War II German DM41 fragmentation hand grenade filled with Composition B. This example has been dissected to reveal the steel fragmentation sleeve and yellow explosive charge.