Posted on 01/11/2004 8:01:06 AM PST by sarcasm
FORT BELVOIR, Va. — The U.S. military's only plant making small-arms ammunition is running at near capacity, 4 million rounds a day, and the United States still is forced to look overseas and to the recreational industry for ammunition for troops in Afghanistan and Iraq and those training to deploy there soon.
Gen. Paul Kern, commander of the Army Materiel Command, said Friday that giving those units priority ensured they had enough small-arms ammunition. "Everyone else will have to pay the price" and wait for it, he said.
The increased demand for ammunition for combat shooting and intensified training has made deep inroads in the nation's war reserves of ammunition, Kern said.
The sole plant making small-arms ammunition, the Lake City Army Ammunition Plant in Independence, Mo., is running three eight-hour shifts a day, six days a week. The plant provides 5.56 mm rifle, 7.62 mm and .50 caliber machine gun as well as 9 mm pistol cartridges for all branches of the military.
Because of the increased demand for ammunition since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks and America's wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, Kern said the Army in late December let two supplemental contracts to Olin Winchester of East Alton, Ill., and Israeli Military Industries for each to produce 70 million rifle rounds per month starting in June.
The general said it would probably take until 2005 to get small-arms ammunition production to a level at which there will be enough to cover all the increased training needs and begin rebuilding the war reserves.
"We can't just go out and buy our ammunition commercially," Kern said. "We maintain very tight quality controls. Our ammo has to work, at 40 below zero or 140 degrees."
He said the Army has put an additional $225 million into small-arms ammunition production and additional armor for Humvees since the 9-11 attacks.
In addition to combat requirements, two other factors were driving the increased demand for ammunition: increased live-fire training for combat-service-support units and the fact that Reserves and National Guard were shooting as much as the active Army as they trained for deployment to combat, Kern said.
The troops would learn all about jams, mis-feeds and they will have to clean their M16s after every after every hundred rounds.
After cleaning their weapons nonstop, they will be VERY proficient at cleaning their weapons. In fact, after using good ammo they will have cleaning time down to about 42 seconds!!!!
I am almost not kidding!
I bet you rememberwhen the Dillon Gang was robbing trains in Kansas, too....
You must have gotten a very old batch or one that had been stored improperly. I've used IMI stuff off and on for years and it's always been first class ammo.
OTOH, any manufacturer can goof up occasionally. I bought several boxes of PMC 6.5x55 once that was on sale. The first couple of rounds I fired recoiled more like a .300 Win mag than a 6.5 Mauser. Being somewhat dense, I fired another round and the primer blew. The Mauser's cocking piece blew back, took off a patch of hide, and almost broke my thumb. Actually I got off easy. Blown primers have been known to cause severe injuries, especially to the eyes.
I called PMC and told them what happened. They asked me to send them the remaining rounds from that batch and they would replace all the boxes I had bought. I said no thanks, just refund my money and I won't call a lawyer. (Actually I had no intention of calling a lawyer. I wasn't hurt much and the industry has too many junk lawsuits as it is)
I later found out that PMC had loaded a batch of 6.5x55 with an excess powder charge that resulted in a chamber pressure equivalent to .308Win pressure. Several rifles had blown up using the stuff and PMC was in some very hot water. I don't know what ever happened in that regard, but I have avoided PMC ammo ever since. I realize that's probably a foolish attitude. Because like I said before, anyone can make a mistake and the same thing could happen to any ammo maker tomorrow.
Tungsten has the same density as gold, thus it has been used (after very heavy gold plating) in a few frauds. But tungsten has to be shaped by powder metallurgy which is much more uneconomical than simple pouring and swaging of lead alloys.
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