Cooking off
Cooking off is when ammunition is set off prematurely due to heat in the surrounding environment.
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 lining ammunition compartments with insulation. 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.
