ARMY’S URGENT NEED TO RESOLVE SAFETY RISKS OF HANDHELD SIGNALS

The U.S. Military commonly employs handheld pyrotechnic signals to alert nearby personnel of an emergency, request assistance, or communicate critical information in situations where other forms of communication are not viable. In the early 2000s, a major safety issue arose with the handheld pyrotechnic signals due to an incident during the Iraq War. A handheld signal was accidentally set off inside of an ammunition depot, igniting nearby explosive ordnance devices, and ultimately resulting in multiple injuries and fatalities.

The incident stemmed from a design flaw in the packaging system that caused the firing cap to get lodged inside the container’s tube when inserting the device at an improper orientation. Once the soldier took out the signal and reinserted it into the container, the primer of the flare would hit the firing pin of the stuck firing cap, setting off the flare. This type of incident occurred frequently in open fields for the field handheld signals, but it did not result in personnel injury or property damage until this accident happened in the overseas ammunition depot. 

After this incident, the Army immediately assigned PEO-Ammunition, Project Manager - Combat Ammunition Systems (PM-CAS) to identify the root causes of the incident and develop a reliable pyrotechnical signal by redesigning the pyrotechnic signal systems to eliminate the risk of accidental ignition of the signal to ensure the safety of the soldiers.