Dud

A dud is an ammunition round or explosive that fails to fire or detonate, respectively, on time or on command. Poorly designed devices (for example, improvised explosive devices (IEDs)), shoddy worksmanship at the munitions factory, over-complicated fuzes, and small devices, have higher chances of being duds. During the Continuation War 1941-1944, Finns estimated up to 20% to 30% of all Soviet shells would be duds.

For other uses, see Dud (disambiguation).
Dud shell lodged in a tree, Argonne Forest, First World War
British dud during World War I

Duds are still dangerous, and can explode if handled. They must be deactivated and disposed of carefully. In war-torn areas, many curious children have been injured or killed from tampering with such devices.

The variation absolute dud describes a nuclear weapon that fails to explode. (A nuclear weapon which does explode, but does not achieve its expected power, is termed a fizzle.)

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