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Artillery system "Mars": Sweating missiles
Photo:
Focke Strangmann / EPA-EFE
There are other ammunition in the Armed Forces stock that could be dangerous because of their age.
This emerges from a confidential report from the Ministry of Defense to Armaments Secretary Benedikt Zimmer.
It is said to be potentially as dangerous as the 32,641 old LAR 110 millimeter rockets that exude highly explosive nitroglycerin.
Dealing with them had already been forbidden.
The four-page letter dated November 3, 2021 lists three other rocket types.
In the warehouse in Wermutshausen, Baden-Württemberg, for example, there were around 2,500 Strela missiles, which were kept in wooden boxes and "oxidized/corroded, with some mold forming, which could damage the ammunition warehouses and affect the staff."
The disposal had come to a standstill, even inquiries could not have resulted in "an acceleration of the disposal process".
139 missiles of the "decoy" type are "basically subject to the same aging problems" as LAR missiles, but no abnormalities have yet been identified.
However, the more than 4,000 "line-towed DM59 rockets" were also found to "sweat out nitroglycerin" and were banned from use, according to the report.
As soon as the technical investigations have been completed, the disposal will be initiated "immediately".
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