shaig%cosmos.huji.ac.il@CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU (11/14/89)
From: <shaig%cosmos.huji.ac.il@CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU> Last week an experimental M-109 gun exploded in the Yuma, Arizona testing grounds. The gun, modified according to Israeli Army specifications, was being jointly developed with the United States. As a result of the explosion, the crew members, including two Israeli soldiers, were killed instantly. Reports here have suggested a number of reasons for the accident (as I mentioned) but did not mention the nature of the modifications made or indicate how likely it was that this was the cause of the explosion. I was wondering whether the readers may have heard about the incident and could offer any relevant information. Shai
emery@aries.mitre.org (David Emery) (11/17/89)
From: emery@aries.mitre.org (David Emery) This is purely speculation, but I would suspect one of 3 causes: 1. straight mechanical failure (it happens sometimes, i.e. flaw in the breech, etc..) 2. The basic way to get more range out of a gun is to increase the pressure. It's possible that they loaded "charge 26" (current 155mm charges are 1 to 7) to see how much additional range they could get. And then, they blew the breach. 3. One proposal under development is liquid propellant (current propellant is conventional powder in bags). It's possible that this was a prototype liquid propellant gun, and something went wrong and too much "go juice" was loaded into the gun, blowing the breach. All in all, I believe that something blew the breach. I can't imagine how you'd get so many people killed if, for instance, the barrel blew up (outside of the cabin of the M109). The M109 is, of course, SP artillery and the crew is completely protected by a lightly armored turret. dave emery emery@aries.mitre.org (CPT, FA, NHARNG M198 Towed 155mm Howitzers)