Airmen destroy grenade launchers

  • Published
  • By Lt. Col. Dave Maharrey
  • 407th Expeditionary Civil Engineer Squadron
TALLIL AIR BASE, Iraq (AFPN) --  More than 600 rocket-propelled grenade launchers collected by coalition forces throughout southern Iraq, were recently destroyed by Airmen of the 407th Expeditionary Civil Engineer Squadron here.

Normally destroyed using explosives, this amount of weapons required too much.

“In order to destroy these launchers explosively, it would have completely exhausted our C-4 resources,” said Capt. Doug Tippet, EOD flight commander. “With unexploded ordnance littering the ground everywhere at Tallil, it would not have been a wise decision to deplete our entire supply of plastic explosives.”

The cost of C-4 is $7.50 per block, but acquiring and receiving the explosive is difficult because of current demand and manufacturing limitations.

After some experiments with a welding torch, structural craftsmen determined the optimum point for demilitarizing the launchers for the EOD flight.

The craftsmen made a work table to hold the launchers while they were torched.

After the weapons were rendered useless, they were buried.