Obsolete ammo demolition

[Tmine35]

Here a picture I picked up from a local paper some time ago. Sorry about poor quality but my camera didn't any better. Our army EOD are regularly exploding over-aged and obsolete ammo in mass explosions. Normal load is 5-7 large truck loads ( up to 200 tons ) in one bang. In this picture seems to be a lot of 150mm HE shells with unknown smaller items in boxes.
After explosion some of the scrap steel is collected with large electromagnets, the crater filled and next load made in the same place.

 

[Tmine35]

Sorry, forgot the picture :tinysmile_shy_t:

 

[spotter]

Now i would like to see that lot go up :xd::xd::xd:

 

[Chris 42 RQ]

Big Bang !

Wow thats one heck of a big bang !
Wouldnt like to be within 1/2 mile of that little lot.

 

[al'saad]

this way of disposal of surplus of ammo, or ammo that doesn't meet standards is the most environmentally unfriendly way of disposal.
this way soil gets polluted by mechanical and chemical waste, not to talk about ground disruptions, acoustic contamination and so...
i have use to do demolitions of similar scale which led to destruction of environmental habitat of several animal spices.

 

[spotter]

This picture shows heavy ground contamination on a heavily used but now obsolete range which was used post ww2 as a disposal area,a survey vehicle was sent over the site to check for hot spots of possible uxo which on the printout would show up red,,on the print out almost the whole area was red.

 

[LCplCombat]

When I was in Belize I was lemoned to drive a 4 ton truck full of out of date AT mines to Baldy Beacon range for disposal. When I eventually got there (they don't have many roads in Belize) the ATs got about there business and I spent most of the rest of the day watching fireworks and drinking tea. Near the end of the day the WOII AT i/c asked me if I want to blow some stuff up! He showed me how to rig up a charge and supervised me while I did it, then he let me press the button to set it all off. Most fun you can have with your clothes on.

 

[Tmine35]

Here a picture of the lot going up. Photo taken from several kilometers distance.
This demolition place is in Northern Finland, far above Arctic Circle, middle of nowhere - therefore it disturbs nature only. In late summer they blow up a few weeks time more or less daily. The bang can be heard tens of kilometers away.

 

[Grenadier]

+++

The incidental blast in ammunition depot near Sofia last summer...
[ame="http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=16f_1215270360"]LiveLeak.com - Explosions at army ammunition depot ends in fireball[/ame]

 

[al'saad]

the heavies single item i have ever blown was MK83 bomb from nearly 500 meters away (double length of firing cable) and i felt shock wave trough my flack jacket.

and here on pic is one me in the pit

 

[al'saad]

a detonation of upper mentioned pit

 

[Grenademan2005]

Looking the pic of Tmine35 it remember me when I was younger and was doing the military service here in Spain one time that I went to explode out of date ammo. We explode that day 70.000 out of date, but still in use practice grenades and some other rounds. I have pics of the explosion take by me 2 kms far away, but the shockwave was so heavy that an old house near us shooks and it lost some bricks. This was in 1993, so the pics are in paper and somewhere in my home, I will try to find them and post them here. I remember it perfectly because was the day of my birthday, it was a wonderful celebration! I have a question for the EOD experts: When you put hundreds and hundreds of shells, grenades, mortars, etc, for explode them.... I mean, for example: if you put 1000 grenades and 500 mortars, when they explode, the 1000 grenades and the 500 mortars are destroyed? Or if you go later to the explosion place you can find grenades and mortars still intact on the ground?

 

[Tmine35]

When skilled EOD personnel put together a large demolition load usually very few items remain unexploded. I think EOD members on the forum can tell more details. The basic idea is not to make the items flying around but guide the explosion from outside of the pile towards center and also use enough additional explosives to break the steel shells and ignite the content.

 

[al'saad]

general idea is to put HE, HEAT, HESH etc outside, and AP, APHE etc in side of pile and use explosive charges from ammo to do the job.

 

[Grenademan2005]

But I still think that at least one of the pieces will non explode, it is almost impossible that ALL explodes from the first round to last grenade. A few just will fly around... it is my thought, of course.

 

[Falcon]

general idea is to put HE, HEAT, HESH etc outside, and AP, APHE etc in side of pile and use explosive charges from ammo to do the job.

By AP, if you mean solid AP shot, why would that need to go in the pile? A solid steel shell IS likely to fly around and not be destoryed.

 

[al'saad]

okay not AP but APHE, my bad!

and definitely not HVAP, HVAPFSDS, and not under any circumstances DU shots.