The Army has sought immediate intervention of the DefenceMinistry to check rising cases of accidents involving battle tanks, artilleryand air defence guns due to “poor quality” of ammunition beingsupplied to it by the state-run Ordnance Factory Board (OFB), official sourcessaid.
They said the Army has specifically raised the issue withSecretary (Defence Production) Ajay Kumar, saying poor quality of ammunitionhas been causing damage to a range of key weapons of the Army in the past fewyears, they said.
Following the Army’s request, the defence ministry examinedthe issue and found that OFB has not been pro-active in improving quality ofthe ammunition to contain accidents caused by faulty ammunition, the sourcessaid.
The OFB operates 41 ordnance factories across the country andfunctions under the department of defence production of the ministry ofdefence.
When contacted, the OFB said it supplies ammunition toIndian Army after through inspection by its Quality Control departmentDirectorate General of Quality Assurance (DGQA).
It said all input material are tested in designatedlaboratories and a series of specific tests are conducted before ammunition issupplied to the Army.
The Army also presented a report to the ministry listingincidents of accidents involving main guns of the T-72 and T-90 and the Arjunmain battle tanks besides 105mm Indian field guns, 105mm light field guns,130mm MA1 medium guns and 40mm L-70 air defence guns, primarily due to faultyammunition, they said.
The Army also cited a number of incidents in which armypersonnel were injured due to faulty ammunition.
Sources said the Army was very serious about the issue andrequested the defence ministry take appropriate initiatives to improve qualityof ammunition being supplied to the force.
OFB said it is “responsible for manufacturing and up todispatch of ammunition and is not aware of the storage/ handling/ maintenanceconditions at Army’s end which are equally responsible fordefects/accidents.”
“Unlike other products, ammunition is single-use item.For this reason, 100 per cent inspection including dynamic proof cannot becarried out. A principle of Statistical Quality Control (SQC) is employed forfinal acceptance of ammunition. SQC is inherently associated with bothproducer’s risk and customer’s risk,” it said.
In September 2017, the Army’s long-range ultra-light (ULH)howitzer M-777 was damaged during a field trial in Pokhran and the USmanufacturer as well as the Army had indicated that the gun exploded due tofaulty ammunition.
In August 2017, the defence ministry sacked 13 seniorofficers employed with ordnance factories after finding their overallperformance “unsatisfactory”.