Thread by @KesariDhwaj

- ATAGS barrel bursts during trials & immediately, we've anonymous officials questioning the barrel metallurgy.
- No discussion about faulty ammo or fuse.
- Of course, it is a mere coincidence that import of 155/52mm guns was put on hold because of ATAGS.
economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/defence/i…

This TOI Report says that -
"shells burst within the barrel, damaging the gun"
This is vastly different from what ET said about defect in metallurgy. Remember, Dhanush also had same barrel burst issue. Nothing which cannot be rectified.
timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/78…

This report has probable cause @ramana_brf
- Zone 7 charge used to attain 40+ km range.
- Use of higher charge can impact the movement of shell within the barrel.
- Report says Zone 6 charge is safe limit but ATAGS has fired 000s of rounds with Zone 7.
timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/nagpur/ar…

+
- To the above, let me add this: ATAGS is unique because it has 25 Liter chamber while standard is 23 Liter chamber.
- Higher chamber volume allows use of higher charge.
- Higher charge --> longer range.
- ATAGS has achieved world-beating longer range because of this +

+ combination of higher chamber volume & higher charge.
- And as the report says, it has fired thousands of rounds with Zone 7 charge in trials so far and done exceedingly well.
- A Court of Inquiry (COI) will do a root cause analysis and come out with the reason(s) for this +

+ incident.
- In the meanwhile, we need to be weary of people peddling the snake-oil about 'barrel metallurgy' issues.
- If the metallurgy is an issue, it will come out only after detailed analysis and not these off-the-cuff comments.
- Just for reference +

- a '-ve' fall-out of higher chamber volume has been higher weight of the guns.
- Army wants weight to come down to 14 tons range while ATAGS is 18 tons. For reference, Dhanush is 13 tons (its 155/45 vs ATAGS 155/52)
- So, debate+

+ on weight boils down to higher chamber volume, higher range and more weight or relatively lower chamber volume, slightly lesser range and weight reduction.
- Though, led me add here is that while we know chamber volume adds to weight, we don't know what other design aspect of +

+ ATAGS needs optimization from weight perspective.
- Coming back to barrel burst, a proper Court of Inquiry (COI) will do a root cause analysis and suggest a solution.
- And lets not fall for anonymous 'metallurgy is suspect' opinion makers.

- Informed piece by former Deputy Chief Of Army Staff on superlative performance ATAGS and how its perfect eg of #atmanibharbharat with 95% indigenous content.
- @ramana_brf : article says gun tube sheared off when 100th round was fired
financialexpress.com/defence/atags-…