Mortar rounds fired at YPG

YUMA PROVING GROUND — Several 120-mm mortar rounds were fired at one of the installation's ranges Tuesday as part of the testing being performed on the ammunition's firing system.

Gabriel Saldivar, a test officer for YPG's munitions and weapons division, said the objective of the "production acceptance test" was to make sure the M1020 ignition cartridge was working the way it was designed to, by firing 35 sample rounds throughout the day.

"What we are testing is the ignition cartridge, which is a component of the actual projectile," Saldivar said. "It assists in propelling the round from out of the gun barrel."

Saldivar explained that the ignition cartridge, which contains a firing pin, is the component built into the rear end of a mortar shell.

When a shell is dropped into a mortar tube, he said, it strikes the firing pin, which then ignites the propellants that fire the shell out of the gun barrel.

"This is part of the regular testing we do," Saldivar said. "We want to make sure nothing breaks when being fired and functions properly correctly."

YPG spokesman Chuck Wullenjohn said that although the M1020 ignition cartridge has already been fielded, Tuesday's test was more for quality control purposes.

"What we are doing is just making sure what was produced by the manufacturer still does exactly what it is supposed to do," Wullenjohn said.

The tests were conducted by mounting an M-121 mortar inside an M1064 armored personnel carrier and fired remotely by testers.

Several pieces of equipment were set up near the tests to capture the results, including two high-speed cameras and muzzle velocity radars to measure how fast the shells were leaving the barrel.

"We want to see if anything separates during the firing," Saldivar said of the high-speed cameras being used. "If it does, you want to capture it with a picture so you can see what happened."

Wullenjohn said YPG performs over 250 mortar tests each year, and that it is a significant component of its workload.

That workload is also increasing each year. As a result, YPG's Yuma Test Center has recently been named Organization of the Year by the U.S. Army's Product Manager Mortar Systems.

"It's always great to be recognized by a customer," Wullenjohn said. "There are other places in the country where mortars can be tested because it is a short-range weapon, but they have recognized YPG as the the premier location."