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…
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.