Faulty ammunition reason behind M777 gun explosion, reveals probe

September 24, 2017 15:09

A preliminary investigation has found that faulty ammunition was the reason behind the explosion on the army's new long-range ultra-light 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 has found that the explosion took place due to faulty ammunition supplied by the Ordnance Factory Board and further probe into the matter was on, the 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".

India had received two M-777 ultra-light howitzers in May, each worth around Rs 35 crore, after a gap of 30 years since the Bofors scandal broke out, and the accident took place in one of them.

The field trials of the 155 mm, 39-calibre guns manufactured by BAE systems were being carried out at Pokhran in Rajasthan with an aim to collate various critical data like trajectory, speed and frequency.

Army sources had said the barrel of the gun was damaged in the explosion.

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