US military hits ammunition shortages

[deadparrot]

WASHINGTON (AFP) - The United States cannot keep up with military demand for ammunition which has more than doubled since the war on terrorism and the invasion of Iraq were launched, according to a Congress watchdog report.

The report said that the amount of small ammunition needed had increased from about 730 million rounds a year to nearly 1.8 billion.

For medium calibre ammunition, the rise had gone from 11.7 million rounds to almost 22 million, said the General Accounting Office.

Defence Department purchases of ammunition had reduced after the end of the Cold War and a number of government owned production factories were closed, said the report by the Congress watchdog.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/usmilitaryammunition

[NYC]

1. Outsourcing.

...But supplies of small sized ammunition is lagging behind demand and the United States is now relying on foreign producers, including from Israel, to help meet its needs...

How sensible is it to get war materials from foreign countries? A while back, I heard something about China and bullets.

[rzemanfl]

2. What the hell did they do with 730 MILLION ROUNDS in peace-

time?

[Earth_First]

5. I am sure that recruit training accounts for a considerable percentage...

Annual Quals/ReQuals
Training exercises(s)
Black Market barter...

[slackmaster]

7. Target practice

You can't just pick up a rifle and hit targets without a significant amount of coaching and a shitload of practice.

[rzemanfl]

9. How many shots is that per person? Seems like a lot to me. n/t

[slackmaster]

10. How many people are there in the Army + USMC + Navy + Air Force?

Just pulling a rough figure out of the air, say there are one million soldiers, sailors, and airmen including reserves. That would mean only 780 rounds per member.

That's very little shooting for rifle training, and machine guns gobble up ammunition very quickly.

[Earth_First]

3. As I recall, the DoD just made a substantial (outsourced) purchase...

something to the tune of a quarter of a trillion rounds to Taiwan...?

Am I mistaken?

[eleny]

4. Maybe now that it's a struggle and not a war, they won't need so much

[Deja Q]

6. I wonder if China would sell...

:hide:

[slackmaster]

12. Chinese ammo sucks

One of my rifles reliably chokes on Norinco .223.

[Devil Dog Dem]

8. Explains why commerical 5.56/.223 ammo is so expensive.

There used to be a fair amount of government "reject" (factory seconds) ammo around, but apparently the G is taking whatever they can get and that avenue has dried up, and driven up all other prices with it.

[slackmaster]

11. Ammoman has Lake City XM193PD for $199/1000

It's bulk packed (not in boxes of 20).