On 4 August 1993, the Délégué Général pour L’Armement, DGA, of the Ministry of Defense approved the French National Doctrine88 for Insensitive Munitions. The French term for Insensitive Munitions is “Munitions à Risques Atténués” (MURAT).89
In their approach to IM, the French identified three levels of insensitivity which they call “Labels”. These labels were referred to as MURAT I, MURAT II, and MURAT III. The reactions obtained with a munition submitted to nine different stimuli were analyzed to obtain the MURAT Label. The following table describes the acceptable reaction level for each of the nine stimuli for each of the MURAT Labels:
| STIMULI | MURAT I ACCEPTABLE REACTION1 TYPE |
MURAT II ACCEPTABLE REACTION1 TYPE |
MURAT III ACCEPTABLE REACTION1 TYPE |
|---|---|---|---|
| FAST COOK-OFF | IV2 | V2 | V |
| SLOW COOK-OFF | III2 | V | V |
| BULLET IMPACT | III | V | |
| LIGHT FRAG. | I | III | V |
| HEAVY FRAG. | I | III | IV2 |
| SHAPED CHARGE | I | I | III |
| SYMPATHETIC REACTION | III | III | IV2 |
| DROP | NR | NR | NR |
| ELECTRICAL | NR | NR | NR |
1Reaction types: I=Detonation; II=Partial Detonation; III=Explosion; IV=deflagration; V=Burning
2No Propulsion
88DGA Décision # 101087 de 4 Août 1993; Objet: Sécurisation des munition conventionnelles.
89Instruction no 0260 DGA/IPE, “Doctrine Nationale Française en Matière de Munitions à Risques Atténuées”, Édition de Juillet 1993.