Army suspends Rodriguez Range operations as errant shell inquiry continues

The Army in South Korea has stopped firing the mobile gun system on its Stryker vehicles as it investigates why one vehicle errantly fired a 105mm round that struck the home of a man living near the Rodriguez Range complex on March 29.

Army officials said the investigation will review three areas: whether the system operators followed procedure, if the gun system worked properly, and if the training event accounted for all variables, such as the rocky terrain.

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“We are as equally concerned about the safety of our local communities as we would be back home,” 8th Army spokesman Col. Shawn Stroud said.

Units using the Stryker, a wheeled armored vehicle, aren’t permanently based in South Korea, but some do rotate to the peninsula for training, Army officials said.

Although the Army awaits the investigation results, there are preliminary indications of what might have occurred.

The 105mm, non-explosive training round used by the Stryker gun system is supposed to break apart upon hitting its range target.

In this case, the round was found intact after it punctured the homeowner’s roof, ricocheted off metal reinforcement bars and landed in a field, South Korean police and fire officials told Stars and Stripes.

At Rodriguez Range and other live-fire locations, the military computes “danger zones” that determine where rounds should be fired, based on factors like terrain and trajectory. South Korea-specific training for servicemembers, range safety officers, master gunners and after-action video also contribute to safety efforts, officials said.

The 3,390-acre complex had been used by battalion-level or higher commands on all but eight days this year, as of April 1. The Army, Marines and Air Force all use the complex, as do their South Korean counterparts.

The incident came as part of Foal Eagle, an annual bilateral exercise involving several thousand servicemembers throughout the country.

slavin.erik@stripes.com

Twitter: @eslavin_stripes