Homemade grenades suit Army

By PAUL YANDALL

You may think there is a bizarre symmetry about a former life insurance salesman now making grenades for a living.

You may also think there is something not quite right, let alone legal, about him making them in his garage.

But whatever you think, there is no denying that Horowhenua man Bill Sharplin is giving the New Zealand Army a lot more bang for its buck.

The 54-year-old father of three has won a contract to supply 33,000 of his grenades, at $20 a pop, to the Army.

The 40mm Practice Rifle Grenade is one of three types he is manufacturing from the garage at his Foxton Beach home, north of Wellington. The grenade fits onto the end of a launcher and carries a canister of powder that bursts open on impact.

"The most important thing was it being able to accurately simulate real combat conditions. I'm pretty happy with it but it took a bit of work to put together - it was tight for a while," said Mr Sharplin.

Not that business would not be booming with products like the Drill Grenade and the Jungle Sweeper Combat Grenade.

The Army is also considering buying the Drill, a reusable dummy grenade, and Jungle Sweeper, a launched timed-explosion grenades.

"Luckily there are a lot of deserted sand dunes out this way. Testing them is not a problem," said Mr Sharplin.

Police make regular checks to his property to ensure equipment is being used and stored properly.

Mr Sharplin said he sold life insurance before deciding to pursue a career in arms manufacturing.

"It was really about seizing an opportunity. I was working on a case involving a local grenade maker who was going bust and I thought 'there's a market here but the product is all wrong'."

He knew there were design problems with Army grenades from the United States so he decided to give the problem a go himself.

He now employs up to five staff when business gets busy.

"There are still some things to be ironed out but there are real opportunities out there.

"Not bad for a bit of Kiwi can-do, eh?"

"He's one of our success stories all right," said the Army's standards, quality and engineering spokesman, Lieutenant-Colonel Kelvin Barclay.

After passing strict quality control tests, the Army accepted his practice grenades for use.

"They're an excellent product. They're much better value for money than the American grenades we had been using."

Colonel Barclay said the American grenades would not always shatter or perform to specification."

He said the Jungle Sweeper, which was designed to clear cover as well as destroying enemy, was being considered for combat use, but things were still at a very early stage.