Marines, sailors hurt in Bragg explosion
 

By Brian Shane - Staff writer
Posted : Tuesday Mar 15, 2011 12:01:13 EDT

Eight Marines and two Navy personnel were hospitalized Monday night following an explosion during artillery training at Fort Bragg, N.C.

The accident happened about 8 p.m., the result of an apparent explosion of an M777A2 round while inside a howitzer, according to public affairs officer Staff Sgt. Jayson Price at Camp Lejeune, N.C. — where the training Marines are based.

The injured service members, all men, are members of Golf Battery, 2nd Battalion, 10th Marines. Their names have not been released. All were hospitalized at ... Read the rest of the story here.

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What do you make of the Bragg explosion?

M777A2 is the gun system itself, not the round. What was the nomenclature of the projectile that exploded in the breach and what was the fuzing? That'll go a long way to explaining what happened.

Apparently, the gun didn't fully recoil and when the crew opened the breach to inspect it an explosion occurred. Looks like the Projectile, fuzing, and propellant are all conventional and use of all of those lots has been suspended worldwide pending investigation.

Also, I'm showing 11 injuries from my end.

Actually, the nomenclature of the round and the model of fuze would likely have nothing at all to do with it. It was most likely a hairline crack in the base of the projo (round) which was in all likelihood a regular HE 155mm round. Highly unlikely (close to impossible) that the gun recoiled at all if the round didn't leave the tube. What is the source of that information? I've been in Artillery for 21 years.

Flash Report from IMCOM

You know what they say about initial reports. We had a very similar incident at Fort Sill many years ago except it was on an 8 inch howitzer and the round exploded in the breech (nobody opened it). It blew the whole tube off the carriage and nobody got killed but a few guys had minor injuries. Hairline crack in the base of the round was determined to be the cause as they found other rounds in that same lot with hairline cracks in their bases.

Well the round didn't detonate. I know this because no one died. It sounds like the charge may have been loaded with the red side out. So there was an initial low recoil, but the slow burning propellant was still burning. Once the breach was opened and all the oxygen rushed in...bang.

Didn't they start tac-welding extra plates on the projo bases to mitigate that?

First of all, how do you know the round didn't detonate? Second of all, without the projo leaving the tube there could be no recoil (the old cause and effect principle of physics). Third of all, if the powder burned as you state there would not be any "bang" whatsoever, it would be a "whoosh" accompanied by a huge fireball and guaranteed death of at least one but more likely multiple personnel.

I know the round didn't detonate because the picture of the gun that I've seen didn't show it splayed open like a banana.

The 8 inch howitzer that blew up didn't have the tube splayed either, the breech was blown off though.