L23A1 ban?

[Demigod-17]

on the scorpion (FV-101) was a 76mm L23A1 cannon (and some had 90mm's), and in april 1992 it was banned but i cant find any information on why... can anybody enlighten me on why?

[kutter]

Officially the story was that the 76mm ammo was emitting toxic fumes. Funny enough, though, the Canadian Army doesn't seem to have encountered the same problem since they have about 100 Cougars (which uses the Scorpion turret and 76mm gun) in service with the reserves.

[gafkiwi]

NZ army scorps were firing their 76mm right up until they were taken out of service around 97/98.
Then again our tankies had more problems driving them to bloody fast than anything else.

[intrinsic]

It was mainly due to toxic fumes, but of more concern was that it was found to contain metal particulates (Copper,brass,lead and others) from the ammo was being inhaled and going into the lungs of the unprotected crew.
We last used them in '94 and then they all went off to be refurbed and converted to Sabre's
Per Ardua

[Hydro]

I think there was a similar thing about using GPMG (L8A1?) in the coax role at some point for the same reasons. Too many fumes being extracted into the turret. The L94A1 Chain Gun spits all its gas outside.

[futurepilot2004]

We still use the 76mm on our scorpians, they were upgraded and a solution of some kind was found to vent the toxic fumes.