FACT: All agencies for the federal government do a 5 year budget forecast. They could end up buying 750 million more rounds of assorted calibers over that period. It's still could be boatload of ammo.
It is a five year contract with a maximum purchase of 70 million rounds over the life of the contract.
Actually Breitbart, the minimum buy guarantee over the next five years of the contract from 10/01/2012 to 9/30/2017:
Verbatim from the contract:
"When the government requires CLTA [Commercial Leading Training Ammunition] covered by this contract, delivery order(s) will be issued: delivery instructions will be listed therein. Prices include all delivery cost and Federal Excise Tax (FET). The minimum guarantee that the Government will order is 1,000 rounds per contract per year. Unit price is per 1,000 rounds. "
The gov has the option of buying that Titanic load of ammo per the contract.
“One solicitation under Federal Law Enforcement Training Center (FLETC) has a contract ceiling of UP TO 750 million rounds of training ammunition, a maximum quantity allowing FLETC flexibility over the next 5 years for training of over 90 federal agencies. A separate 5-year department-wide contract allows the purchase of UP TO 450 million rounds of duty ammunition for our law enforcement officers and agents. This contract is intended to be used by all DHS components, except the U.S. Coast Guard, who uses U.S. Department of Defense ammo contracts. This contract is part of the Department’s strategic sourcing efforts to combine multiple previous contracts in order to leverage the purchasing power of the entire Department to efficiently procure equipment and supplies at significantly lower costs.”
Someone has to watch all the munition contracts being awarded, and add up the actual ammo deliveries over a period of time to get the real picture how much the government is getting.
Of course the government has the option of buing that amount. That is what is called the contract ceiling. Government contracts are often written with very high ceilings but that doesn’t mean there is any intention of actually buying that amount. It simply is a number for that specific contract. The actual orders are always what is important not an almost meaningless contract ceiling quantity.