M-777 explosion due to faulty ammo: Probe
NEWDELHI: A preliminary investigation has found that faulty ammunition was the reason behind the explosion on the Army’s new long-range ultralight (ULH) howitzer M-777 during a field trial in Pokhran earlier this month, official sources said.
The barrel of the Us-manufactured gun had exploded when it was firing Indian ammunition on September 2. A preliminary inquiry found that the explosion took place due to faulty ammunition supplied by the Ordnance Factory Board (OFB) and further probe was on, sources said.
Asked about the findings of the probe, OFB spokesperson Uddipan Mukherjee said, “Any such failure is attributable to a complex phenomena pertaining to internal ballistics as the shell moves at a very high speed inside the barrel.” He said these kind of failures can have multiple causes and “the quality of the shell is not the only reason”.
Without specifically commenting on the findings of the probe, Mukherjee said ammunition used in the M-777 gun had undergone the required quality tests.
India had received two M-777 ultra-light howitzers in May, each worth around ₹35 crore, some 30 years after the Bofors scandal broke out, and the accident took place in one of them.
The field trials of the 155mm, 39-calibre guns manufactured by BAE systems were being carried out at Pokhran in Rajasthan to collate various critical data like trajectory, speed and frequency.
Army sources had said the barrel of the gun was damaged in the explosion. Army had received the howitzers as part of an order for 145 guns. Three more guns are to be supplied to the Army in September 2018 for training.