| jason (Little Upsilon) | Friday, February 6, 2009 - 06:03 am 
Ammo usage in training is way to high. Big army's like the US army fire off maybe 5 -6 real AA war shots a year not 1000's
Tom I ask you to please lower this ASAP.
thanks |
| WildEyes (Kebir Blue) | Friday, February 6, 2009 - 06:09 am
The foremost I agree with jason is the changes in finance. It is true we have seen a lowering in the base prices of many systems and ammunition, however, this is offset by the outrageously high cost of ammo used per month.
40,000 interceptors, uses A LOT of ammo. |
| Pathetic Sheep (Little Upsilon) | Friday, February 6, 2009 - 09:24 am
Real world ammunition decays, rusts, and becomes obsolete. Not only the ammunition. Weapon systems rust too. The battleship Iowa exploded because the navy was using old charges. They claim they won't repeat the mistake.
Armies like the US military fire off enormous quantities of ammunition. The motive isn't training. Explosives are safer after the explosion. Old shells are extremely hazardous waste. The US tries to dump/fire everything in territories and foreign countries. The events are often called training exercises or tests and some soldiers do get trained and weapons do get tested. But the reason for the huge tonnage is hazardous waste dumping. |
| Yankee (Fearless Blue) | Saturday, February 7, 2009 - 02:47 am
My "theroy" on the turret explosion on the Iowa is that it was caused by updated systems attempting to fire the guns too rapidly.
Newer powder bags are much thinner than those designed in the 30's for use in those guns. They looked into "over ram" which causes a particularly unstable condition due to settling in the suspension material.
And were based mostly on the condition of the breach control during investigation which indicated it "should" have been open. The gunner's chair was so deformed by the blast I doubt the position of the breach control could be confirmed prior to the explosion.
All tests where inconclusive and so far the Navy has not determined a cause. There are other investigations still going on but, there will more than likely never be an official determination.
All I can tell you is when I saw the video of the guns firing and the subseqent explosion I knew in my mind the cause.
Hot breach, AFTER the ramming process with a partually open breach. Those guns where simply not being purged correctly.
If you watch the video the timing was almost perfect for that batteries next salvo, and where firing much too fast.
Obviously since without official determination of cause the public will never know for sure, run a stop watch when watching the video and you'll make up your own mind.
The powder bags, ripped or otherwise along with settling, touched off by over-ram by themselves unless, something comes up in current independent tests (I believe someone is still running them) have been eliminated as cause.
I do however agree with Jason, ammo use per month is way to high and always has been. |
| Yankee (Fearless Blue) | Saturday, February 7, 2009 - 02:57 am
Well after posting I looked into the investigation and it's been closed and the conclusion was the explosion was caused by over-ram.
I don't believe that was the cause but grant it could have been a contributing factor. |
