The wreckage of an ATACMS MGM-140A missile in Berdiansk
MGM-140A ATACMS Block I
Original model with 165 km range, inertial navigation and 950 M74 anti-personnel and anti-materiel (APAM) grenades.
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MGM-140A ATACMS Block I
Original model with 165 km range, inertial navigation and 950 M74 anti-personnel and anti-materiel (APAM) grenades.
I suspect the failure rate goes up. Have you seen the video of the Russian AA missile pretending to be a boomerang 🪃 and flying back to its launch point?
That's what can happen with old rockets.
Yup. One issue from long storage is that the fuel in solid fuel rockets can start to separate. Ryan McBeth did an explanation on a possible cause on that AA missile failure.
As you mentioned, some explosives also become unpredictable. The Takata airbags sending shrapnel into drivers faces comes to mind.
Yes, I've seen (that?) such a video. Rockets and missiles have a lot of mechanical and electronical parts that can refuse to work properly when overaged or stored under bad conditions, besides fancy things happening to the explosives.