Army running out of ammo, seeks bullets from foreigners

((On edit: damn, just saw this was dated May 8. Not LBN))

Army running out of ammo, seeks bullets from foreigners

The U.S. Army said it will seek bullets from commercial and foreign producers because its biggest ammunition supplier, Alliant Techsystems Inc., can't keep up with demand.

<snip>

Edina, Minnesota-based Alliant Friday said demand is rising to its highest level since the Vietnam War.

To make up for the shortage, the Army recently awarded contracts to state-owned Israel Military Industries Ltd. and Olin Corp.'s Winchester unit, each for 70 million rounds, Butler said in a telephone interview. He said he couldn't disclose the value of the contracts.

The Army wants to buy about 1.4 billion bullets this year and have the capacity for 2 billion rounds a year, Butler said. That is more than Alliant can make, and there are few other companies that can make military ammunition on such a large scale. The Army plans to seek a company able to coordinate production of as much as 500 million rounds by a number of smaller producers, Butler said.

<snip>

The U.S.-led coalition in Iraq is struggling to control rising violence that in April alone killed more U.S. soldiers than during last year's war, which lasted about six weeks. With U.S. troops engaged abroad, live-fire training exercises to boost preparedness have also increased demand, Butler said.

"It's a surprise they are using so much ordnance over there," said Philip Finnegan, an analyst for the Teal Group consultancy in Fairfax, Virginia. "No one would have expected this a few months ago."

http://www.dailystar.com/dailystar/news/21194.php

I guess the Iraqi manufacturing plants ran out flowers.

ammo all over Iraq. Remember?

Jay

There is no way, if I were Commander-in-chief, that I would allow US soldiers to shoot at Arabs with Israeli bullets.

Arabs see a difference between Israeli and American bullets anymore?

The small arms ammo dosen't have DU in it. Please try again.

This question has been nagging me for several weeks. We spend $400 billion on war. We have about 1.4 million active service men and women and 1.2 million reservists. Yet, we don't have enough bullet proof vests, armored Hummers, and we have to ask the ski areas to give back surplus howitzers for use in the middle east. If keeping 150,000 troops in the field puts that kind of strain on our expensive war machine, what would happen if we had to fight a "mandatory" war? Someone needs to investigate this problem.

There really isn't a defense military force anymore. I guess they count on having nukes as being enough deterrent.

the taxpayers to a select group of individuals that have undue influence on our congresscritters. I would suspect that 25-30% of all spending is skimmed off the top.

Trillions missing from the Defense budget accounts. It didn't fall into some couch cushions somewhere, unless you consider a Swiss bank account a couch cushion.

We're not makin any friends.

Gonna need a LOT of bullets to keep 'murica free from evildoers.

By the photos and newsreels that have been published for the last few months it looks like Army and Marine soldiers have stopped using the M249 Squad Automatic Weapon in favor of the M240 light machine gun, which shoots 7.62 mm. The Marines are making good use of their 50 caliber M82s. They're still carrying their M16s and M4s, etc. but I've also seen a few photos of individual US troops packing bolt-action rifles like Mausers.

That's a lot of shooting even assuming everyone is doing thier fair share. If you actually are shooting that much ammo at a real target, what's a reasonable chance that they'll hit you?

Another way to look at it. We're going to buy 100 bullets/Iraqi.

Probably most of this ammo will get horded in little dumps, the militaryis inefficient.

Production and outsourcing will be ramped up to avoid shortages on the front, which will result in overproduction and surplus stock.

Once the shooting dies down and the surplus ammo ages on the shelf to the point where it no longer meets military freshness requirements it will mean abundant cheap surplus ammunition for the civilian market.

Like this stuff from http://www.ammoman.com

But I thought the military surplussing small arms ammunition to civilians had been made illegal by Executive Order. That would explain why all we see from military ordinance piles are "de-milled" ammunition components from the tear down machines.

The XM193 box you show does indeed come from the same Lake City plant that assembles all of the ammunition for military consumption. I would wager that M193 ammunition that Federal/Alliant releases to us civvies did not pass government inspection for whatever reason. It is pretty much the best FMJ out there IMO, as I've never had a problem with it.

Of course I would love to hit on a great deal for surplus US military ammo down the road. The good South African ammo is all but gone now.

Surplus ammo has to be disassembled and reloaded before it can be sold.

A wasteful, inefficient process.

The XM193 box you show does indeed come from the same Lake City plant that assembles all of the ammunition for military consumption. I would wager that M193 ammunition that Federal/Alliant releases to us civvies did not pass government inspection for whatever reason. It is pretty much the best FMJ out there IMO, as I've never had a problem with it.

Folks at ar15.com often complain that the surplus LC is cosmetically challenged. It works fine for me.

Time to bulk order M29's?

80/20 rule, 20% of the soldiers are shooting 80% of the shots so 25,000 soldiers are shooting about 45,000 rounds each.

no shame

One missile costs over a million dollars. One strategic bomber costs well over one billion. One stealth fighter costs over 125 million dollars. A run of the mill tactical jet probably runs about 30 million. Remember that this government is controlled by the aerospace faction of the military industrial complex. They have no respect for ground forces contrary to their protestations, that's why they are so big on mercenaries. Their lack of respect for ground forces is the cause of their cavalier rejection of the Geneva Conventions. The Army detests them.

2 BILLION rounds?

but.... but... Oraq has only 27 millions people!!!

That is like 80 rounds for every man, woman and child!

... to share them out evenly so far but, inevitably, some civilians will
end up receiving too many, others too few ... what can you do eh?

Those gunships are not the most accurate devices known to mankind so the
odd ton of metal just goes astray now and then.

Still, look on the bright side: there are a lot fewer Iraqi men, women
and children left than when the invasion began so it *should* make
things easier in the future!

</sarcasm> (for the humour-impaired)

Not "no one", Phil!

Everybody who was against this war expected it.

We can not make implements of death quickly enough for this Cabal so now they (the government) are outsourcing jobs for the purpose of killing people.

Ironically my father used to work for them. Right before he retired. He helped design those "bullets"

Seriously, I'd say the stock looks pretty good for those willing to capitalize on this mess.

the bloodbath continues of our citizens.