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PROCUREMENT: Why There's a Bullet Shortage
StrategyPage.com ^ | January 12, 2004

Posted on 01/12/2004 10:10:32 AM PST by John Jorsett

The U.S. Army produces or procures 350 different types of munitions (bombs, bullets, grenades, rockets and so on.) Currently, it has shortages in 25 of those items, the most noticeable being fragmentation grenades and blank ammo for the M-16 rifle and SAW light machine-gun. The Department of Defense produces all of its small arms ammunition at one factory, in Lake City, Missouri (the largest plant for 5.56mm-20mm ammo in the world). But this facility is now running 24/7 and Congress is under pressure re-open older, smaller, mothballed plants. The Lake City plant can produce over a billion cartridges (mostly various types of 5.56mm ammo) a year, so why the shortages? A large part of it has to do with troops getting ready for duty in Iraq. This involves a lot of infantry training, and that requires a lot of blank 5.56mm ammunition. There was apparently a lack of coordination between the people in the Pentagon deciding to greatly expand infantry training, but no one told the Joint Munitions Command so that production of munitions used in training could be increased. This sort of thing was not a problem during the Cold War, when there were always large "war reserve stocks" of ammunition. This was necessary because the main threat was the Warsaw Pact (the Soviet Union and it's East European allies) that threatened to invade Western Europe. A war there would last a while and require huge quantities of ammo to keep the troops supplied while munitions plants increased production. So thousands of tons of ammunition was always kept in stockpiles. But this ammo would degrade with age. Thus every year there were large quantities of "use it or lose it" ammo reaching the point where you either fired it off or recycled it. Once the Cold War ended, so did the need for the large war reserve stocks of ammo. Billions of dollars a year could be saved by sharply reducing the war reserve stocks, and that was what happened. Unfortunately, there were some miscalculations in doing that, and there have been periodic shortages of 5.56mm ammo over the last few years. No one at the Pentagon will give a straight answer as to why this is happening, but whatever planning system they are using, it needs a little tweaking.


TOPICS: Foreign Affairs; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: ammo; supplylines
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To: BabaOreally
Doesn't it seem really, really stupid to rely on a single point of supply for bullets? Whose idea was this? Think anything will change given this problem?

Agreed. Any competentently run large corporation would not rely on one supplier for critical parts. ..... Whoops. We are talkin' guvmint here. Almost forgot.

21 posted on 01/12/2004 11:35:14 AM PST by DeFault User
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To: All

22 posted on 01/12/2004 11:41:53 AM PST by BushMeister
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To: John Jorsett
There's a factory in Sedalia, MO, that makes bullets -- called Sierra Bullets -- wonder why they couldn't let a contract to them?

Carolyn

23 posted on 01/12/2004 11:44:10 AM PST by CDHart
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To: demlosers
Shelf life is indefinite for ammo when stored correctly.

Jobs for the boys. Whose Congressional district is this ammo factory in?

-ccm

24 posted on 01/12/2004 11:45:12 AM PST by ccmay
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To: CDHart
Sierra makes only bullets, not the complete cartridge. Coincidentally, Sierra makes the 77gr MatchKing bullet which is being loaded by Black Hills for ammunition for SpecOps troops. The 77gr bullet has a longer range that standard ammunition and is very popular (and expensive).
25 posted on 01/12/2004 11:48:14 AM PST by SJSAMPLE
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To: First_Salute
bump
26 posted on 01/12/2004 11:51:29 AM PST by snopercod (I talk to myself because I like dealing with a better class of people.)
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To: Looking for Diogenes
Remember that Clintonazis were waiting on "green" ammo before restocking.
27 posted on 01/12/2004 11:53:42 AM PST by SevenDaysInMay (Federal judges and justices serve for periods of good behavior, not life. Article III sec. 1)
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To: 2banana
Running out of M16 and SAW ammo?

No SWEAT.

There are thousands of AK47's being confiscated all the time, and millions of rounds of ammo for them also.

This is a good time to do some training on foreign weapons.

28 posted on 01/12/2004 11:53:43 AM PST by Happy2BMe
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To: U S Army EOD; Squantos; Eaker; glock rocks
ping
29 posted on 01/12/2004 11:54:00 AM PST by B4Ranch (Wave your flag, don't waive your rights!)
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To: John Jorsett
LakeCity$88million
30 posted on 01/12/2004 11:54:50 AM PST by BushMeister
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To: BushMeister
LakeCity$25million
31 posted on 01/12/2004 11:56:51 AM PST by BushMeister
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To: SJSAMPLE
Sounds like you know a whole lot more about it than I do! :^) But if the demand is there, you'd think someone would be thinking about filling it.

Carolyn

32 posted on 01/12/2004 11:56:54 AM PST by CDHart
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To: John Jorsett
And look what we have sitting in WI doing nothing!!
And there's a smaller up near Bayfield.

Badger Army Ammunition Plant
http://www.badgeraap.org/index.shtml

http://www.saukprairievision.org/histover.htm

http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/facility/aap-badger.htm

33 posted on 01/12/2004 12:00:10 PM PST by quietolong
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To: quietolong
Getting a shipment ready at Lake city:


34 posted on 01/12/2004 12:06:13 PM PST by BushMeister
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To: John Jorsett
Why don't they just contract some bids out to some of the domestic civilian ammumition plants? They could use the business.
35 posted on 01/12/2004 12:08:16 PM PST by Gritty ("I have little interest in streamlining government. I mean to reduce it's size"-Barry Goldwater)
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To: SJSAMPLE
Tungsten bullets, which are higher density than lead and have a longer effective range, are under development and the expected cost is about $1 each.

As opposed to the roughly $0.25 per round they pay now.

36 posted on 01/12/2004 12:11:11 PM PST by tortoise (All these moments lost in time, like tears in the rain.)
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To: B4Ranch
Hey !! ....My 500 rounds BANG a week BANG habit BANG is BANG something BANG I BANG can BANG quit if BANG these BANG guys BANG really BANG need the BANG ammo...........!

Stay safe and cache what presstitutes are trying to say we're short of !

37 posted on 01/12/2004 12:11:15 PM PST by Squantos (Support Mental Health !........or........ I'LL KILL YOU !!!!)
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To: Gritty
I don't think they have to. Production at Lake city has expanded from 350-400 million rounds/year before 9/11 to 1.2 billion rounds/year currently. They are still hiring at and expanding the Lake city plant. Do I wish they would disperse ammunition production for security reasons? Sure. But the Lake city plant is huge and has plenty of room to expand.
38 posted on 01/12/2004 12:12:15 PM PST by BushMeister
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To: Eaker; TexasCowboy; humblegunner
Hey Eaker they have a pic of your garage !........before the trip to range........:o)
39 posted on 01/12/2004 12:13:40 PM PST by Squantos (Support Mental Health !........or........ I'LL KILL YOU !!!!)
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To: tortoise
I think the military probably pays about 15 cents for each cartridge of 5.56mm.
40 posted on 01/12/2004 12:14:44 PM PST by BushMeister
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