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The risks from munitions in the underwater environment are driven by two very different effects: the explosive hazard associated with encounter and the environmental hazard associated with the release of the constituents contained in the round. Developing tools to determine the locations of munitions and the potential sources, transport, fate, and effects of munitions constituents in the marine environment is essential for a more complete assessment of the potential for environmental impacts and exposure at current and former military ranges and disposal sites.
Detailed surveys of contaminated areas are conducted where the remediation of individual munitions is required. Individual items must be detected with high probability and sufficient location accuracy that they may be unambiguously identified and retrieved. SERDP and ESTCP projects have demonstrated several technologies meant for conducting detailed surveys of munitions response sites in the underwater environment.
In 2022, SERDP funded projects that will improve the detection of unexploded ordnance (UXO) and characterize munitions. The selected projects are described in greater detail below.
These projects will enhance current technologies and develop new approaches for wide area and detailed surveys of munitions in a variety of complex and shallow underwater environments. Such efforts will ultimately enable cost-effective characterization, remediation, and management of underwater munitions response sites.