MGM-140A ATACMS Block I

Original model with 165 km range, inertial navigation and 950 M74 anti-personnel and anti-materiel (APAM) grenades.

  • MeshPotato@lemmy.world
    3·
    1 year ago

    I suspect the failure rate goes up. Have you seen the video of the Russian AA missile pretending to be a boomerang 🪃 and flying back to its launch point?

    That’s what can happen with old rockets.

    • MeshPotato@lemmy.world
      3·
      1 year ago

      Yup. One issue from long storage is that the fuel in solid fuel rockets can start to separate. Ryan McBeth did an explanation on a possible cause on that AA missile failure.

      As you mentioned, some explosives also become unpredictable. The Takata airbags sending shrapnel into drivers faces comes to mind.

    • Successful_Try543@feddit.de
      2·
      1 year ago

      Yes, I’ve seen (that?) such a video. Rockets and missiles have a lot of mechanical and electronical parts that can refuse to work properly when overaged or stored under bad conditions, besides fancy things happening to the explosives.