So yesterday, during the No Kings demonstrations all over the country, JD Vance went out to California to Camp Pendleton and observed a live fire exercise involving Marines doing what Marines do–storming ashore. The exercise involved Landing Craft Air Cushion Vehicles, helicopters, and their new fancy armored personnel carrier, all of them coming ashore and looking just spiffy doing so.
For SOME Goddamned reason, this exercise included live Naval gunfire.
Naval gunfire is basically slapping an artillery canon onto the side or front of a ship and trying to shoot that things while the ship is moving in three dimensions. I understand that the Navy is pretty good about stabilizing the guns and the ships and being able to accurately place high explosive and shrapnel where they want it.
Normally when this is done, the entire area they are shooting into is deserted. It’s always a range purpose-built or laid out, far away from inhabited areas. The Navy normally uses San Nicholas Island 60 miles out in the Pacific.
For some damn reason– likely to try to scare of piss people off– they fired 155mm (6-in) shells over Interstate 5 onto Camp Pendleton. Anyone who’s ever driven that stretch of I-5 knows that it goes within a mile or two of the shore with the USMC base on either side. I’ve driven it dozens of times over the years. I’ve seen Marines exercising out there, but I’ve NEVER seen them fire artillery anywhere near there. Hell, I’ve NEVER HEARD of them firing artillery anywhere near there. It’s not an Artillery Impact Area. BECAUSE THERE’S A FUCKING INTERSTATE HIGHWAY GOING THROUGH IT. That’s why I’m saying this is batshit insane. The impact area on a military base is closed to everybody except the Engineers and Explosive Ordinance Disposal troops for a very good reason. Not everything that goes bang at the gun goes bang on the target.
Sometimes, like yesterday, it goes bang prematurely. Leaving aside the humor in something associated with JD Vance going off prematurely (were there couches in the impact area?) the round apparently damaged the roadway (which is one of the effects you’re trying to achieve when you call for artillery in the world). Apparently the Marines did not ask for the Interstate to be closed, but the State of California did close it.
A California Highway Patrol motorcyle was apparently damaged, but there was no CHP officer on it at the time.
I can’t stress enough just how bugfuck crazy this is. It’s EXTREMELY unusual for an artillery round to fall short or detonate short. The technology has been pretty much perfected in World War II. So I’m guessing (and it’s only a guess) that they miscalculated the impact point. It was supposedly the first round fired, and all subsequent rounds were cancelled.
But every time I ever did a Combined Arms Live Fire Exercise (CALFEX, because Army) we planned the shit out of it for weeks on end. Where exactly will the cannon be placed and where exactly is the target area in the middle of the artillery impact area? Where will the Infantry be at each five-minute mark in the exercise, where will the VIPs watch it from? What’s the fragmentation range from impact point for the guns we want to fire? Can we get people far enough away they won’t be in danger? And so on and so on. No, these rounds don’t normally fail. It’s exceedingly rare. But you don’t take the risks you don’t have to take. And this was all so that Trump and Vance could feel all big and powerful. It was billed as the USMC 250th Birthday. Except the USMC’s birthday is November 10th, and they already did a bunch of cool stuff for it.
This whole thing was thrown together at the last moment to try to divert attention from the protests yesterday. Now, we don’t yet know everything. What was supposed to happen? What actually did happen? Was it an airburst or a short round? I’m loathe to speculate and start pointing fingers because I’m not there, but seriously, I’ve NEVER heard of a fuckup like this. Something serious went sideways, and if it wasn’t for the foresight of whatever California public servant closed the Interstate, it could have been a huge tragedy.
UPDATE: This was shore-based 155mm towed artillery, NOT Naval gunfire as I originally understood. The BlueSky thread that begins here has informed supposition by someone who would know more about it.
