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Rare glitch caused artillery round to explode over 5 Freeway during JD Vance visit, report says

March 15, 2026

An artillery round that exploded over the 5 Freeway and rained shrapnel onto the road, striking a California Highway Patrol car during an October event at Camp Pendleton attended by Vice President JD Vance, was caused by a “one-in-a-million” fuze glitch, the Marines announced.

The accident occurred at the 250th Marine Corps birthday live-fire amphibious assault demonstration. Officials determined that the early detonation of the M795 155 mm shells shot from six howitzer guns lined up along Red Beach — a frequently used range for amphibious assaults that lies on the ocean side of the freeway — happened when the normally “extremely reliable” electronic fuze malfunctioned and caused an early detonation.

The final command investigation report was released by the Marines on Friday, March 13, and signed off by Lt. Gen. Christian Wortman, commanding general of the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force at Camp Pendleton.

While an actual reason for the fuze failure wasn’t found, Marine investigators said that it was “potentially caused by a blast overpressure (the sound shockwave after firing the gun) and a unique electromagnetic field.”

The malfunction of the time fuze caused it to detonate 1,500 feet above ground rather than in its designated impact range on the other side of the freeway. The investigation also ruled out human error and found no evidence of drones over the target line or of birds in its flight path.

The high-profile event on Oct. 18, also attended by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, included a week of confusion between state and federal agencies over whether the freeway would be closed.

Planning for the event began in June. At that time, the “very, very important person” in attendance was to be President Donald Trump, according to the report.

If Trump had attended the Camp Pendleton event, the freeway would have been closed, but because Vance is a Marine veteran, it wasn’t required, the report stated. The decision to have Vance there was made, according to the report, on Oct. 15.

Even so, hours before the event was to be held, Gov. Gavin Newsom ordered the freeway closed along a section of Camp Pendleton and the parallel rail lines.

The report found that the Battery E Marines from 2nd Battalion, 11th Marines, “planned and executed their mission with significant oversight and a safety structure in place,” and that the artillery shells detonated at altitudes of 453 meters and 1014.1 meters from their target range on the inland side of the 5 Freeway. The unoccupied CHP vehicle that was struck by a 2.5-inch piece of shrapnel was parked along the Las Pulgas on-ramp to the southbound 5 Freeway. There were no injuries.

The CHP on Sunday, Oct. 19, 2025, released this photo of a piece of ordnance it said was fired by the Marines over the 5 Freeway at Camp Pendleton and prematurely detonated Saturday, Oct. 18, striking a CHP vehicle. (Photo courtesy California Highway Patrol)

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The command investigation report also stated that the fuze malfunction — the second ever reported in the M767A1’s service history, which occurred at Fort Drum, an Army reserve base, in 2017 after hitting an object in flight — was a “statistical anomaly that was outside any reasonable probability” because the electronic device is manufactured to the “tolerance of one defect in a million.”

While the investigators couldn’t pinpoint exactly why the fuze misfired, the close proximity of the howitzers at only 14 feet apart might have played a role. Several artillery officers who looked at what happened suggested that they hadn’t seen guns placed this closely together but also noted that there was no “restrictive minimum distance.” The total gunline was 35 meters long, or nearly 115 feet.

Retired Marine Col. Mike Roach, who served at Camp Pendleton and across the world as an artillery officer and led artillery units from every level from platoon to regiment, said the unit involved did everything right.

“Besides, probably aviation, there is no military community that is as detail-oriented and puts a lot of stock in safety and process as artillery,” he said. “For us to be good at our job, maintain our lethality and operational capability, we have to train.”

Roach said he shot artillery over Korean villages, Japan, and Thailand, and being accurate and precise is an artillery Marine’s trademark.

“In all those cases, there was risk,” he said, adding that in routine training, there is always a chance something could happen.

But in his 26-year career, aside from the Fort Drum incident, he said he had never heard of the type of fuze used in the Pendleton case as having a problem.

“Everything has risk. Airplanes flying over San Diego, over Point Loma, could have an engine blow out and crash into someone’s house. There is that chance.

“You do as much as you can to mitigate that risk, and no organization does it better than the Marine Corps,” he said. “It’s a rarity that this happens. For us to maintain the freedoms we have, we’ve got to train. In shooting over Red Beach over the interstate, they did everything right.”

The Marines concluded that they will use the information from the report to further refine protocols for the use of artillery shells and fuzes in electromagnetic battlefield scenarios, while also adding more protective hearing gear for the Marines’ health and improving communication and spacing of howitzers in higher electromagnetic environments.

Ordnance fired over 5 Freeway at Camp Pendleton prematurely detonated, striking CHP vehicle

Rare glitch caused artillery round to explode over 5 Freeway during JD Vance visit, report says Orange County Register

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Rare glitch caused artillery round to explode over 5 Freeway during JD Vance visit, report says

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