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from a variety of storing locations to be prepared and
shipped to the Army Propellant Surveillance Laboratory
(APSL) at Picatinny Arsenal. The APSL has
been testing samples on an annual basis since the
early 1970s.
Because of the time it takes to process, prepare, and
ship samples to the APSL and the lab’s resulting workload,
routine sample test results are usually not available
until several months after JMC initiates the stability
test. Propellant samples that are identified as priority
for testing can be processed quickly on an exception
basis. However, it is clear from the volume of material
that needs testing that most of the propellant lot
samples cannot be treated as priority propellants.
Unfortunately, as robust as it is, our propellant
surveillance system has not put an end to autoignition
accidents. Seven propellant autoignition incidents,
some involving 100,000 pounds or more of powder,
occurred at Army installations in the 1980s and 1990s.
Although it has been 10 years since the last accident,
constant vigilance is required.
Excess and Obsolete Propellant Stocks
With the retirement of some weapon systems and
modernization of others, greater reliance on artillery
rockets, and the reduction in the size of the force,
DOD has found itself with an immense quantity of
excess, obsolete, and otherwise unwanted propellant.
Much of the propellant is in separate-loading bag
charges for Army and Marine Corps artillery. Millions
of pounds of Navy gun charges have no purpose
since capital ships are no longer equipped with major
caliber guns. DOD also has many millions of pounds
of excess propellant locked inside cartridge cases of
obsolete or unserviceable fixed rounds and mortar
projectiles. Along with the active stockpile, the propellant
in the demilitarization account (ownership code
B5A) requires close surveillance for stability.
The Army, as the single manager for class V (ammunition)
demilitarization assets, assumes ownership of
all ammunition and explosives of each service transferred
to the B5A account. Hence, the Army Propellant
Stability Program becomes increasingly burdened
with providing sample testing of these propellants.
Conducting stability surveillance for bulkpackaged
propellant, separate-loading propelling
charges, and small component charges, such as those
for mortar ammunition, is relatively straightforward.
Picatinny Arsenal stored master samples of small
arms powder as shown in photo in 1922. This
facility, which was built in 1920, was destroyed in
1926 by an explosion at the Lake Denmark Navy
explosives facility adjacent to Picatinny Arsenal.
All buildings at Picatinny Arsenal were destroyed
in the explosion.
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These items are mostly identified on stock records
by their propellant lot or index number. Therefore,
they are automatically included in the stockpile test
portion of the Propellant Stability Program. This is
not the case with propellants in fixed or semi-fixed
cartridges. The Army considers such propellants
so unlikely to autoignite in an uploaded-round configuration
that the propellants are not included in the
stockpile test program, and the propellants are not
closely tracked.
Complete rounds, including ammunition for small
arms, mortar, and artillery, are identified on stock
records by the complete round lot number. When
component lot information is listed, it contains lot
numbers of items such as the fuse or the ball and
tracer but not the propellant the rounds contain.
The ammunition data card must be viewed to find
the lot number of the propellant that is loaded into
these rounds. In a number of cases, especially for
small arms cartridges, the loaded propellant lot is not
represented in the master sample program at APSL.
Thus, much of the propellant loaded into cartridges
of all calibers has not been tested for stability since
the day it was loaded. For some older cartridges, this
can mean the propellant has not been monitored since
the 1950s or even earlier. Although the Army considers
propellant in fixed rounds as not hazardous, when
these rounds are no longer needed and are processed
for demilitarization, propellant stability becomes an
immediate safety issue.
JULY–AUGUST 2008