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 Swiss might disagree:
(Though this is completely safe because the shells fly way above the road)
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.
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.
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.