Abstract: At present, both the impact effect of high-speed water-entry projectiles and reactive materials are hot research topics in underwater weapons and efficient damage technology. In order to verify the idea of combining the two highlights to cause efficient damage to underwater targets such as torpedo, mine, and submarine, water-entry impact experiments using a reactive material are carried out, and underwater target penetration experiments using kinetic energy rods (KE-rods) with the reactive material on its head are conducted. The experimental results demonstrate that when a single small-mass object made of the reactive material or a KE-rod with the reactive material on its head impacts water at the speed of about Mach 2, there is no observable exergonic reaction. Even if the reactive material releases energy before it hits water, the reaction would be impossible to continue due to rapid environmental pressure drop and rapid heat loss during penetration into water. After the KE-rod enters water and penetrates the shell of the underwater target, the reactive material produces a “detonation-like” reaction inside the target, which results in an enhanced damage effect. The experiment verifies the feasibility of an underwater-target-attack scheme in which reactive material is applied to the head of a KE-rod. The experimental results also provide a research idea for the development of weapon with efficient damage to underwater targets.

Key words: energeticrod, reactivematerials, kineticenergyrod, water-entryimpact, energyreleasebyimpact, efficientdamage