PROCUREMENT: Why There's a Bullet Shortage

StrategyPage.com ^ | January 12, 2004

[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.

[SJSAMPLE]

55gr and 62gr military ammo is considerably less than .25 a piece. I buy about 5000rnds a year, and I pay less than .20 a round for Israeli-produced 55gr Winchester.

[SJSAMPLE]

You've got that right. But, essentially, it's a government operation. The contractor is responsible for producing what the gubment demands. As many have already posted, having only one small arms ammunition plant is a serious mistake. The DOD has been spending big $$$ on high ticket items (Apaches, Abrams, et al) so they routinely ignore small arms and equipment.

[Eaker]

;<)

LOL !!!!!!!!

[B4Ranch]

A continual hemmiroid with me is the lack of rounds new recruits are allowed to shoot. Especially when the odds of being sent into a combat area are so high. Why won't they give them at least fifteen clips and two days to learn?

My Company Commander made us pass his test two days after we set foot in Nam. Until then I had never fired a single shot in the middle of the night without the barn lights being on.

[B4Ranch]

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.

[ninenot]

There was also a reported shortage of 9mm after the Armed Forces switched from the Browning .45 to the Beretta.

Ah, well.

[Looking for Diogenes]

Since all of the equipment and property is owned by the federal government, it's the government who controls overall manufacturing capacity, not the contractor.

That's why I say that someone with private sector experience should get involved. This is an inventory management issue, which private companies have considerable expertise with.

[Looking for Diogenes]

Remember that Clintonazis were waiting on "green" ammo before restocking.

That was years ago. Let's get our act together already.

[CDHart]

"they routinely ignore small arms and equipment."

Large error, IMO. It appears that almost everything that govt. gets involved in turns out to be a disaster, so I guess we shouldn't be surprised.

Carolyn

[SJSAMPLE]

Everybody want's to get in on the big ticket items, especially when their district will get in on the loot. Ammunition seems almost like an afterthought.