Friday January 14, 2022
No use, only disposal
Bundeswehr missiles sweat and mold
The Bundeswehr apparently has several thousand unusable rockets. According to one report, they emit highly explosive substances and sometimes start to mold. The staff is also said to suffer from this, but inquiries could not have caused “the disposal process to be accelerated”.
In the stocks of the Bundeswehr, even more old rockets release highly explosive material than previously thought. In a confidential report by the Ministry of Defense from the beginning of November, it was stated that “nitroglycerin exudation” had been detected in towed-line missiles of the type DM59, reports the “Spiegel”. They have been blocked from use.
Accordingly, the Bundeswehr has more than 4000 of these missiles. As soon as the technical investigations have been completed, the disposal will be initiated “immediately”, the news magazine quotes from the letter.
“Staff Disturbance”
In a warehouse in Wermutshausen, Baden-Württemberg, around 2,500 “Strela” missiles are also stored in wooden boxes. The munitions would “oxidize/corrode with partial mold formation which could result in damage to the munitions storehouses as well as inconvenience to personnel”. The disposal of the missiles had “stalled”, and even inquiries could not have “accelerated the disposal process”.
Finally, according to the report, there are 139 missiles of the “decoy” type. Although these are “basically subject to the same aging problems” as the LAR rockets, anomalies have not yet been identified.
Issue known since 2019
The “Spiegel” had already reported on the LAR 110 millimeter rockets a week ago. These should also secrete the highly explosive substance nitroglycerin. All affected ammunition warehouses are closed until further notice and “any handling of this ammunition is prohibited,” the magazine quoted at the time from a confidential progress report from the Ministry of Defense from September.
Accordingly, it is about 32,641 rockets that are already over 30 years old and should be discarded. The problem has been known since spring 2019 and is still not solved.
After the first “Spiegel” report, the Federal Office for Equipment, Information Technology and Use of the German Armed Forces published a statement stating that “due to the age” of the rockets, “nitroglycerine-containing exudations from the rocket motors” could occur. However, self-ignition is excluded. There are also strict safety requirements for the storage of the rockets – therefore “risks for the neighboring population and the personnel of the Bundeswehr when handling the ammunition are excluded if these requirements are observed”.