Estimated read time: 2-3 minutes
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
SALT LAKE CITY (AP) -- Army officials at Dugway Proving Ground have resurrected a proposal for a facility to test the safety of munitions by trying to explode them.
The Army decided that the original mission for Dugway's proposed Insensitive Munitions Test Grid will go instead to Arizona's Yuma Proving Ground.
But Dugway officials now say they could use the facility for other testing the proving ground already has under contract.
The new proposal was reported by the Deseret Morning News.
Dugway initially proposed clearing a large area to allow blowing up all types of munitions under varying circumstances, mapping dispersal and collecting the pieces. Some explosions could be huge.
Dugway had said in planning documents that the facility could help attract a lucrative new mission: ensuring that all U.S. munitions are safe from unintended explosions caused by accidents or enemy fire.
Munitions that do not detonate under any conditions other than their intended mission to destroy an enemy target are called "insensitive munitions."
Congress recently ordered ensuring that all U.S. munitions are insensitive, which could lead to safer storage, handling and transportation.
A draft environmental assessment prepared by Dugway said this newly mandated requirement provides a unique opportunity for Dugway to expand its testing role, and could result in a positive economic effect.
However, the Army's Developmental Test Command announced two weeks ago that all future insensitive munitions testing would go to Yuma.
Dugway spokesman Paula G. Nicholson said then that the base would not sign its draft environmental assessment and would not build the new test facility.
Plans changed this week.
Nicholson said that "all impacts to existing workload were not considered prior to the decision not to sign. After considering all impacts, Dugway Proving Ground intends to sign the (environmental assessment) and use the planned facility in support of existing work."
Nicholson said Dugway now plans to use the grid to test the new MONOPACK, a container for field soldiers to carry 120-millimeter mortar rounds.
"For this test, it will be necessary to grade a 500-foot radius circle for fragmentation pickup. West Desert Test Center will be testing the MONOPACK to determine how well the container protects a standard 120 mm mortar round during routine shipping, storing and handling," she said.
She said the facility may be used for other tests later. "We have a lot of testing," she said.
Environmental and military watchdog Steve Erickson said, "You don't build a facility for one test. You use it for ongoing activities."
He said that could still lead to expanded missions with big explosives tests, to go along with chemical and biological defense work at the base.
"They are trying to grab every mission they can get their hands on," he said.
Erickson that when Dugway changed its plans, it should have extended the comment period on its environmental assessment and plans for another 30 days.
(Copyright 2006 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
