A preliminary investigation has found that faulty ammunition was the reason behind the explosion on the Armythread screw barrelThe barrel of the US-manufactured gun had exploded when it was firing Indian ammunition on September 2.The Army had received the howitzers as part of an order for 145 guns.While 25 guns will come in a fly-away condition, the rest will be assembled in India by the BAE Systems in partnership with Mahindra Defence.A preliminary inquiry has found that the explosion took place due to faulty ammunition supplied by the Ordnance Factory Board # (OFB) and further probe into the matter was on, the sources said.
"He said these kind of failures can have multiple causes and "the quality of the shell is not the only reason". The alleged pay-offs in the deal and its subsequent political ramifications had severely crippled the Indian Army's procurement of artillery guns.Without specifically commenting on the findings of the probe, Mukherjee said ammunition used in the M-777 gun had undergone the required quality tests.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.end-ofTags: howitzer m-777, explosion, m-777 ultra-light howitzers, bofors scandalLocation: India, Delhi, New Delhi.
The Army has been pressing the government to speed up its modernisation programme.Army sources had said the barrel of the gun was damaged in the explosion.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 barrel of the US-manufactured gun had exploded when it was firing Indian ammunition on September 2.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