An explosive that works brilliantly in a few weapons may still fail the economics of total war. RDX production was difficult and costly with contemporary methods, while bombs, mines, shells, and torpedoes were ordered in batches measured by thousands of tons. Using pure RDX at that scale could make even a technically successful weapons program financially unsustainable. Mixing it into a secondary explosive preserved much of its performance without making every munition prohibitively expensive.
Notable Point · 12:05-13:39
RDX performance collides with mass-production cost
RDX was stable and energetic but too expensive to use alone across the enormous tonnages demanded by modern war.