Cooking off is when ammunition is set off prematurely due to heat in the surrounding environment. Boxes of ammunition clog a warehouse in Baghdad Ammunition is a generic military term meaning (the assembly of) a projectile and its propellant. ...

Rifles

Cooking off limits the rate of fire of many rifles, since heavy use will heat up the gun's barrel. This is also called thermally induced firing The Rate of fire is the speed at which a specific firearm can operate. ... A rifle is a firearm that uses a spiral groove cut into the barrel to spin a projectile (usually a bullet), thus improving accuracy and range of the projectile. ... In the US military thermally induced firing, often called a cook-off, is when a round fires from a weapon, without the trigger being depressed, due to the heat present from previous firings. ...

Tanks

Cooking off is a serious hazard to crews in damaged and disabled tanks. Over the years, many solutions have been tried, including storing the ammunition under water and insulating ammunition compartments. The current technique, used in tanks like the M1 Abrams, is to armor the compartments and provide blow-off panels to channel the force of the explosion to the exterior of the tank. The M1 Abrams main battle tank is the principal combat tank of the United States Army and the United States Marine Corps, with three main versions being deployed starting in 1980: the M1, M1A1, and M1A2. ...

Artillery

After the cooking off of artillery shells in the G-5 field gun in the late 1980's, the South African army changed commands from "cease fire" to "cease loading". This allowed crews to fire any loaded shells to prevent them from heating up and exploding. A field gun is an artillery piece. ...

Grenades

Cooking off can also refer to the practice of waiting a few seconds before throwing a grenade after starting the timer, typically by pulling the pin and releasing the handle. This can enable the thrower to achieve a more lethal air burst over a target, or more usually provides the least opportunity for the target to throw the grenade away or back at the thrower. Grenade may refer to: The well-known hand grenade commonly used by soldiers. ... An Air Burst occurs whenever an explosive device such as an anti-personnel artillery shell or a nuclear weapon is detonated in the air instead of on contact with the ground or target or a delayed armor peircing explosion. ...