Indian Army Raises Concerns Over High Number of Accidents Due To Poor, Defective Quality Of OFB Ammunition

The Army has expressed its concerns over the poor and defective quality of ammunition being supplied for tanks, artillery, air defence and other guns by the state-owned Ordnance Factory Board (OFB) leading to unacceptably high number of accidents.

The Ministry of Defence (MoD) has been apprised of the ammunition-related issues leading to fatalities, injuries and damage to equipment at an alarming rate, causing loss of confidence in most types of ammunition being manufactured by the OFB, reports Times of India.

The report cited MoD sources as saying that the Army has raised its “serious concerns” about the lack of requisite quality control and assurance by OFB with the secretary (defence production) Ajay Kumar.

The OFB runs 412 factories pan India and has an annual turnover of over Rs 19,000 crore. It is the main supplier of arms and ammunition to over 12 lakh strong Indian Army.

The Army has reported “regular accidents” with 105mm Indian field guns, 105mm light field guns, 130mm MA1 medium guns, 40mm L-70 air defence guns as well as the main guns of the T-72, T-90 and the Arjun main battle tanks. It has also stopped the training firing of 40mm high explosive ammunition by the L-70 air defence guns following an accident in February which cause serious injuries to an officer and four soldiers.