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7 Marines killed in explosion during training exercise at Army depot in Nevada - U.S.

I saw this story on yahoo and in the comments people were giving thumbs down to those who wished the families of the fallen Marines well. I wish i could crawl through a computer.
 
Gave me chills. My son was both based at Camp Lejeune and trained at the Nevada base. God be with the family and friends of the fallen, and injured, and comfort them in there time of sorrow. [sad2]
 
Yeah, just talked to my dad about this. He lives in Hawthorne and is/was the Commander at the local VFW post.

He heard the medivac helos flying last night but wasn't sure what it was all about.

He'll be at the V tonight and if he hears anything, he'll pass it along to me.

Definitely a sad day for the Marines and the families. My thoughts our with them.
 
Finalygotabeltfed said:
Hmmm, something ain't right. Check out the safeties involved in the fuze. Virtually impossible to tamper with at any lower level on the supply chain.

M734 fuze - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Click to expand...


it appears that the issue was probably more to do with the electronics package of the fuze rather than it's mechanical safeties.... hard to imagine the turbine getting that much air to activate in that sort of handling... assuming that the mechanical package was even assembled properly in the first place.

What I am not sure of is how the "third" electronic safety works- it is the delay of the electrical arming of this circuit after the mechanical safety requirements are met.

Could this "delay" actually short and accidentally trip the fuse? Who knows. And I certainly hope not.

Otherwise, this would have to be chalked up to poor mechanical assembly. The system definitely is over-redundant- if it is assembled correctly. I wouldn't even want to think about the failure modes due to improper assembly. It could take hours thinking about what could go wrong.


all I know is that there better be a bunch of engineers shitting their pants and working overtime scouring their DFMEA and production line inspection data. Otherwise someone isn't taking their job ****ing seriously.
 
My son is at Marine Armor School at Ft.Benning...
Had to call him to see if he's ok!
Being a Marine Parent isn't easy.
 
Still waiting for the names... it's a small Marine Corps. My roommate is a mortar-man, and we've been to Hawthorne. Thoughts with those guys and their families.

Mike
 
flintoid said:
it appears that the issue was probably more to do with the electronics package of the fuze rather than it's mechanical safeties.... hard to imagine the turbine getting that much air to activate in that sort of handling... assuming that the mechanical package was even assembled properly in the first place.

What I am not sure of is how the "third" electronic safety works- it is the delay of the electrical arming of this circuit after the mechanical safety requirements are met.

Could this "delay" actually short and accidentally trip the fuse? Who knows. And I certainly hope not.

Otherwise, this would have to be chalked up to poor mechanical assembly. The system definitely is over-redundant- if it is assembled correctly. I wouldn't even want to think about the failure modes due to improper assembly. It could take hours thinking about what could go wrong.


all I know is that there better be a bunch of engineers shitting their pants and working overtime scouring their DFMEA and production line inspection data. Otherwise someone isn't taking their job ****ing seriously.
Click to expand...

I don't know, that stuff is tested and made to fail deliberately in all manner of ways to make it as foolproof as possible. Those type of munitions are considered very if not extremely safe to handle, far safer than commercial fireworks.

Something like this is extremely rare thats why its so suspicious. I've seen 155mm artillery rounds dropped and the fuses damaged, not a second thought was given to them, they just unscrewed it and put another one on and left the old one in the box for pick up by EOD after the exercise. On rifled cannon artillery ammo the inertia required to arm the fuse is extreme, requiring both forward inertia and rotational inertia, arming is not going to happen if its dropped or even spun by hand. It requires firing the projo out the barrel.
I'm sure that whole fuse LOT will be immediately suspect and pulled out of inventory and checked thoroughly.

Sad that Marines were killed by something like this. Someone up the line is probably sucking a seat cushion up their butt right now, like the people involved in the Space Shuttle O-ring fiasco.
 
May be ultra-redundant... but you need to figure with the sheer quantity of these things out there it's bound to happen every now and again. I can see the Marine Corps changing training policy to minimize casualties after this.

Mike
 
Finalygotabeltfed said:
I don't know, that stuff is tested and made to fail deliberately in all manner of ways to make it as foolproof as possible. Those type of munitions are considered very if not extremely safe to handle, far safer than commercial fireworks.

Something like this is extremely rare thats why its so suspicious. I've seen 155mm artillery rounds dropped and the fuses damaged, not a second thought was given to them, they just unscrewed it and put another one on and left the old one in the box for pick up by EOD after the exercise. On rifled cannon artillery ammo the inertia required to arm the fuse is extreme, requiring both forward inertia and rotational inertia, arming is not going to happen if its dropped or even spun by hand. It requires firing the projo out the barrel.
I'm sure that whole fuse LOT will be immediately suspect and pulled out of inventory and checked thoroughly.

Sad that Marines were killed by something like this. Someone up the line is probably sucking a seat cushion up their butt right now, like the people involved in the Space Shuttle O-ring fiasco.
Click to expand...


In my heart I hope it's a manufacturing defect and not sabotage. You can fix stupid. You can't fix evil.
 
ccm75 said:
Ammo contract to lowest bidder?
Click to expand...

That means little, the final product is still tested relentlessly and if it doesn't meet spec its not accepted.

Thats just a little ditty that people use to garner a laugh now and then. When it comes down to real material, it either passes or fails and there's no grey market materials accepted in raw materials or final products.

- - - Updated - - -

flintoid said:
In my heart I hope it's a manufacturing defect and not sabotage. You can fix stupid. You can't fix evil.
Click to expand...

Yep.
 

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