Accidental firing of a 30mm cannon attached to a Kfir bomber caused injuries to 4 airmen and damaged a fighter jet , at the Katunayake Air Base (KAB) today. The bomber was being armed when the incident occured.
4 airmen who were on duty at KAB were injured due to the explosion. The fighter jet too was damaged in the incident but the damages were minimal and the fighter jet is repairable condition.
A Kfir bomber is armed with 2 Rafael-built DEFA 553 30-mm cannons for multirole purpose.
sad story...
ReplyDeleteI hope the Kfir gets operational soon. and may the airmen recover soon!
The SLAF should carryout an hearing on this.
might have been a faulty fuse or rough handling. just a guess.
ReplyDeleteThis is what TamilNet has to say..
ReplyDeleteAnd Tamilnet is still not browseable! What's going on? The gov claims they haven't restricted it, but yet...??
3RD LEAD
Kfir bomb explodes under loading, 4 airmen wounded in Katunayake airbase
[TamilNet, Sunday, 08 July 2007, 11:37 GMT]
Four Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF) airmen were wounded while they were fixing bombs to a Israeli-built Kfir fighter aircraft inside the Katunayake airbase in Colombo around 2:45 p.m., Sunday. Intial reports said the bomber aircraft, preparing for its mission on Kudumpimalai jungles in Batticaloa district, was damaged in the mishap and another fighter jet parked in the airbase was also sustained damage due to the mpact of the blast. However, the SLAF spokesman, Group Captain Ajantha de Silva, declined to comment on the damage to the bombers.
The SLAF spokesman also claimed that the explosion was caused by a 30 mm cannon.
One of the wounded was in serious condition in Colombo hospital.
The Kfir (Young Lion in hebrew) multi-role combat aircrafts form the main offensive component of the SLAF and are extensively used by the SLAF to bomb Liberation Tigers controlled territories.
Kfirs are fitted with GE J-79 engines that can carry a total external payload of 5,500 kg (12,100 pounds).
Katunayake military airbase is situated close to the Katunyake International Airport (KIA).
Further details are not available at the moment.
I too hope that the damage is not serious.
ReplyDelete@defennceNet
"The Air Force said no damage was caused to the fighter jets at the base"
Why do they deny this?
Another report says an accidental fire of one bullet. If this it is only a mis fire of a bullet the surrounding damage must be minimal. It is not a bomb by any means. As usual Tamilnet is spreading false news. Usually they drop 250Kg bombs. If one of these went off it would have been a masive blast, where the news will travel like wind. A technical fault can occur. These are nothing in reality. Many has occured in the history of warfare. If you know this history of warefare you will never get surprised.
ReplyDelete"If this it is only a mis fire of a bullet the surrounding damage must be minimal."
ReplyDeletehi milmi. actually i think the 30mm round is packed with explosives. it's a shell.
A good example out of the history is the wepon mishap in USS Forrestal.
ReplyDeleteRead below pleas. I took this from Wikipedia.
In July 1967, Forrestal departed Norfolk for duty in waters off Vietnam. In the Gulf of Tonkin on 29 July, Forrestal had been launching aircraft from her flight deck. For four days, the planes of Attack Carrier Air Wing 17 flew about 150 missions against targets in North Vietnam from the ship.
Rupertus (DD-851) maneuvers to within 20 feet of Forrestal so fire hoses could be effectively used on the worst US carrier fire since WWII.
Rupertus (DD-851) maneuvers to within 20 feet of Forrestal so fire hoses could be effectively used on the worst US carrier fire since WWII.
Because of a shortage of thousand-pound bombs, old Composition B bombs had been loaded from the ammunition ship USS Diamond Head, instead of safer H6, capable of withstanding high heat or exploding with low order. About 10:50 (local time), a Zuni rocket was accidentally fired from an F-4 Phantom II by an electrical power surge. It flew across the flight deck, striking a wing-mounted external fuel tank on an A-4 Skyhawk piloted by Lt. Cmdr. John McCain, which was waiting to launch. The warhead's safety mechanism prevented it from detonating, but the impact tore the tank off the wing and ignited the resulting spray of pressurized fuel, causing an instantaneous conflagaration. With his aircraft surrounded by flames, McCain escaped by climbing out of the cockpit, walking down the nose and jumping off the refueling probe.
One minute and thirty-four seconds after the impact and initial fire, and with the on-deck firefighting teams actively battling the blaze, a "Comp. B" bomb cooked off from the heat of the flames and exploded underneath McCain's plane; the force destroyed the aircraft (along with it's remaining fuel and armament), blew a smoking crater in the deck, and sprayed the deck and crew with shrapnel and burning jet fuel. The two bomb-laden A-4s in line ahead of McCain's were riddled with shrapnel from the explosion and engulfed in the flaming JP-5 jet fuel still spreading over the deck, causing more bombs to detonate.
Nine major explosions on the flight deck occurred; eight of those were caused by the "Comp. B" bombs and the ninth occurred as a secondary-explosion when an old-bomb detonated very close to a "new" bomb. The explosions tore large holes in the armored flight deck, leading flaming jet fuel to drain into the interior of the ship (including the main hangar), causing massive fires in the stern (rear) section. Luckily, the strict rules prohibiting fueling and armament of hangared planes had been followed, and though most of the aircraft below-decks were either consumed or pushed overboard (to prevent them from igniting and to clear space to fight the fire), no further bomb explosions occured below-decks, a fact which likely saved the vessel. The fire left 132 Forrestal crewmen dead (including the entire on-deck firefighting contingent), 62 more injured, and two missing and presumed dead. The ship returned to Norfolk for extensive repairs. During the post-fire refit, the ship's 5" guns were removed.
Hi Jiffy, it depends.
ReplyDeleteIf it is Armour piercing, then the damage must be very local. But the reciver will get a grand pulverizing effect.
If it is HE, then it will create an explosion.
My point was, if it was fired from the Gun Barrel, then it flies in a direction. What ever the damage will be caused to the equipment in that path. It is unlikely the same Kfir get damaged. Anyway it depends a lot. Tere could have been a very close object which will take the bullet and in case of HE it will create a blast.
Anyway it is far far lower than an exploding 250Kg.
When you say 30mm cannon, is it the radius, diameter or circumference of the ammunition?
ReplyDeleteIt's the diameter.
ReplyDeleteCant we use GIAT 30 Revolver Canon (Which is Electrically operated rather than gas operated DEFA 550 Series) instead of Defa 553 In Kfirs??.. plus i found out that the GIAT 30s Rate of fire is far superior than DEFA 550 Series.. and exceptionally doing well against ground attack.. So what do u think guys??
ReplyDeleteDefenceNet
ReplyDeleteWhats the latest news in thoppigala ??? did we capture two 120mm motar guns????
We heard LTTE now communicate thier sucide tigers via London/Canada (instead of directly from vanni to colombo.) Isn't there any way SL government can track this?
ReplyDeleteccc, any more info on the calls? We can definitely pass it on to the intelligence services in those countries immediately if you can provide some leads.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.sundaytimes.lk/070708/Columns/sitreport.html
ReplyDeleteLankapura,
Please search for the words Canada and UK/Britain in the above webpage..
You will find the source...
It is no secret that Intelligence services of those countries can check the logs of many ISP/phone providers to find the sources of calls like this..
GOSL is not pushing hard enough to arrest all LTTE terror suspects in UK. GOSL must provide the UK with the hit list of LTTE terrorists of those countries.
Good luck..
"Whats the latest news in thoppigala ??? did we capture two 120mm motar guns????"
ReplyDeleteYes we did capture 2 120mms but the guns are unusable and badly damaged. LTTE had blown up the barrel using explosives.
dhinushka,
It's unlikely that a change of 30mm cannon will take place coz it is rarely used and the current one seems to be adequate.
DefenceNet
ReplyDeleteThanx for the info … its ok as long as tigers loosing there heavy weapons.
Any news about those two pakistani MBRLs the tigers using ?
How far we got to go to capture the main base ?
In the news it says SLDF captured Tora Bora. Even in today's Island it says so. But in Defencenet Tora Bora was captured as in the post made on 26th June. What's the deal here then?
ReplyDeleteBTW, any of you guys who were recently scorning the Tigers for wearing slippers & sarongs see today's Daily Mirror front page pic? It shows what looks like STF troopers close to Toppigala, and yep, you guessed it -- one of them is in Batas.
ReplyDeletekiri,
ReplyDeleteThe newspapers are takking about the entire Tora-Bora land patch.
LTTE training base was captured on the 26th and thats whats mentioned in DefenceNet article.
Defencenet,
ReplyDeleteIn today's Daily Mirror aslo it says "Government troops patrolling near Thoppigala on Sunday. Advancing troops yesterday captured the strategically important Tiger ‘Tora Bora’ camp in Narakamulla west, a few miles away from Thoppigala."
It is talking specifically about the Tora Bora "camp". So you mean to say the newspapers are wrong?
"It is talking specifically about the Tora Bora "camp". So you mean to say the newspapers are wrong?"
ReplyDeleteWell the main LTTE training base (this was the base recently subjected to air raids) in Tora-Bora was overrun by the commando regiment/Gajaba/Armoured corps on the 26th.
However Tora-Bora is a vast area in which LTTE has stationed many satellite camps. Last LTTE satellite camp in Tora Bora fell to the army yesterday so the newspapers are not wrong in their story. But LTTE was routed from Tora Bora main base way before than yesterday.
Troops have also captured LTTE leader Jeyam's house. Obviously Jeyam was not present and had fled the area.
ReplyDeletednet,
ReplyDelete8 LTTE Cadres Killed In Mankulam
In Mankulam, 8 LTTE cadres in vehicle killed in claymore explosion including a provincial leader-reporter-jnw.lk
any more details about this?
hasalaka,
ReplyDelete"Any news about those two pakistani MBRLs the tigers using ? "
They've moved the guns west of Thoppigala. They were last fired on 6th July.
(http://defencenet.blogspot.com/2007/07/ltte-artillery-hits-sla-positions.html)
This caused the death of a SLA Major and 5 soldiers (armored corps)
b#1,
ReplyDeletewas just going to update on the incident.
It was a DPU attack.
dnet,
ReplyDelete"This caused the death of a SLA Major and 5 soldiers (armored corps)"
later another captain (ranked major) age 29 was also died with this incident. he has 1 year old triplets babies. I hope GOSL will make consider about these three babies.
defencenet,looks like v r modiying or activating our existin kfir's for air defence.has the mig 29 deal been put off for sure?.if its so,thats one sensible thing to do.i hear that our mig 27's are still not operational.is that true?v r still waitin for the 4mig 27s to comeback after overhaul from ukraine.
ReplyDeleteI'm really ticked off to hear that coward Ranil W. was laughing abt.Toppigala Capture by our Brave SLA Brothers man ! That sucks we lost many brave soldiers and Ranil Wicramasinghe who, has never had to work hard a day in his rich life and never bothered abt the poor folks in Lanka laughs abt. SLA deafeating Ltte Terror! What a moronic traitor who only cares abt. been in power and not the welfare Lankans!
ReplyDeleteBy the DB that SLA trooper manning the Check point in slippers it happens all the time baby... dont judge the photo but, judge the Situation. This aint Iraq this tropical Jungle remember... DB ! VC wore rubber slippers too & look what they did ! You still ma man !
Go Army ! Go Navy ! Go AIr Force !