AbstractPlastic‐bonded explosives (PBXes) with different cross‐link densities and based on explosives with different particle size distributions have been compared for their initiation and detonation properties. The investigations showed that HMX‐based formulations become less sensitive at lower cross‐link densities. The shock sensitivity of two RDX‐based formulations differed considerably. This could have been caused by the particle size distribution of the RDX, but it could also be due to the fact that the explosives were obtained from differen