B roll footage of casually shooting a 155mm howitizer OVER a highway…?
Highway path indicated in blue, red arrows indicate cars and trucks on highway visible downrange of the artillery piece.
A simulated beach assault in which artillery was fired from the sand toward the interior of the sprawling base was intended to be a capstone demonstration of the capabilities of the Marine Corps. But the display went awry — and was forced to end early — when an artillery round exploded midair, sending shrapnel raining down onto a California Highway Patrol cruiser that was parked on an Interstate 5 on-ramp.
While no one was hurt, experts say the decision to fire live munitions over the freeway during the ceremony was highly unusual.
Incompetence and cannons do not mix well. This was incredibly irresponsible. I am astonished they would just upload a video of it too…
The M777 howitzer is an indirect fire weapon, meaning that it’s made to loft explosive shells in an arced trajectory over friendly forces and into enemy territory. Pirek said that, until now, the weapons system used had “pretty much a 0% malfunction rate.”
So, second question: Is this a new-manufacture shell? We just ramped up our artillery shell production. Are we sending Ukraine shells that are prone to premature detonation?
The issue is less a shell detonated at the wrong time and more that they fired a seriously large shell over a public highway for no good reason.
I wouldn’t target shoot with a high caliber rifle in the direction of the highway from that location let alone shoot the largest caliber artillery cannon the US military uses in land operations, it violates basic muzzle control logic at a disturbingly basic level with a huge munition.
I am sure there are cases where you might see artillery firing in a way that isn’t actually dangerous that might look dangerous to a non-expert. This isn’t one of them.
See this video of a direct fire exercise to see a similar situation where shells are landing at about the range the highway is away from the cannon in the above video.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=--JmEF446fE
I wouldn’t target shoot with a high caliber rifle in the direction of the highway
The Swiss might disagree:
(Though this is completely safe because the shells fly way above the road)
I have seen this range. You physically cannot see or shoot the highway from the firing line. There are baffles to physically stop the bullets from being able to reach the highway. If you shoot too low you’ll just hit the baffle.
I mean that’s the exact same logic they used here. The shells were supposed to go at above the highway. But one exploded midair and the shrapnel fell onto the highway
Yeah but there is direct line of sight between the cannons and the highway, I imagine at that swiss rifle range the road is dug in so that you couldn’t physically send a bullet at a vehicle by accident. Not so here with the 155mm M777s, though I imagine they were set to fire much farther (hopefully?!) that doesn’t mean you couldn’t draw a valid ballistic arc straight from a cannon to the highway especially when you consider the possibility of a malfunction or operator error on loading charges.
I imagine
With the internet ,you don’t have to!
It’s basically a wall you shoot over, and if you can shoot over the wall, the round doesn’t have the ballistic trajectory to fall into the road.
yah that’s direct fire, it’s how it’s supposed to work. what you say could also happen if crayon eater forgot to load one charge thing (MACS), or cut bag charge wrong way
The issue is less a shell detonated at the wrong time and more that they fired a seriously large shell over a public highway for no good reason.
Well, sure, that’s an issue, but I expect that they’re going to go look into that. But if the statement is correct that this is a very rare malfunction that we experienced right after rolling out a ton of new artillery shell production capacity for the first time in a very long time — my understanding is that the prior production capacity dated to World War II — then it might indicate a flaw that could have consequences elsewhere.
I don’t know whether the Ukrainians are reporting premature detonations back upstream.
I still cringe at the mission planning that went into this (minimal at best)
The main excuse is that this is done on a frequent basis elsewhere, like on the east coast. Biggest difference there though, is the shell trajectory.
Most of the time this is done, the shell is very high up in the air, so even if it did prematurely detonate, the resulting shrapnel is nowhere near the highway through any part of flight.
This time around though, the target the shell was meant to hit was much too close to the highway. So minimal deviation from the projected flight path would result in high risk in hitting the highway.
That minimal deviation meant that premature detonation meant the cone of possible trajectories shrapnel could fly at intersected parts of the highway.
I can only hope that someone took serious note of this and updated whatever risk factors is accounted for when calculating collateral damage. Otherwise this is the new normal of risk taking that is being actively encouraged by the current administration. You might find out something risky worked, or find out the hard way that it didn’t and pay in blood.
I’m sure the pentagon took all necessary precautions and fired anyone capable of making those measurements.
Alright everyone, turn your 3 AAR comments in to your squad leader before we get back to cantonment. As always, use IDR format. Johnson, put your goddamn hand down. If I have to explain IDR to you again, as God as my witness, I will cheetah-flip in your ass. PSGs, consolidate NLT than COB, to present at tomorrow’s CUB, when we can file all of these lessons learned in the commander’s “special” filing cabinet and totally forget the feedback when we do this event next year."
//Idk if the Marines do these things different than the army, but I imagine the process is the same, even if the terms are different.
Haha, sounds similar enough despite the different lingo.
What could possibly go wrong?
Could’ve hit cops but unfortunately, it only hit their vehicles
I see Encino Man
