Shortage of bullets plagues U.S. military

The State ^ | Sat, Jul. 24, 2004 | RENAE MERLE

[Nagilum]

WASHINGTON — The U.S. military has assembled the most sophisticated fighting arsenal in the world, with satellite-guided weapons and unmanned aerial vehicles that shoot Hellfire missiles.

But as billions of dollars have poured into the technology for futuristic warfare, the government has fallen behind on more mundane needs — bullets.

[Nagilum]

Talk about putting the cart before the horse. I think bullets are, for now, a little more important than the F-22, for example.

[blau993]

Maybe we should do a Freepathon and ask FReepers to clean out their gun safes. That should provide enough spare ammo to keep a few divisions going for a while.

[Nagilum]

Great idea. Better yet would be if I could choose for my tax dollars *only* to go toward military procurement of ammunition.

[maestro]

Shortage of bullets plagues U.S. military?

Use suitcase nukes.

/sarcasm

[Armedanddangerous]

Wal Mart has all the 9mm ammo you need. I buy quite a bit of FMJ ball ammo there for $8.99 per 100 rounds.

That's my practice Glock fodder.

[glorgau]

Wouldn't it just be cheaper to outsource all of this to India or China?

[hiredhand]

http://www.sportsmansguide.com has about every sort of surplus ammo you could imagine. You have to be careful though. Anytime .308 NATO ammo drops to under .12/rd or so (which it hasn't in awhile) we buy a thousand round crate or two. The British 1980's production ammo seems to be VERY good for MIL surplus. I mean...I hate to suggest that our military use surplus, but hey...if you are RUNNING out of ammo, it will certainly solve a crisis until you can get better supplies.

[Solson]

Dead terrorists have all the bullets - blame it on them. :)

[FreedomPoster]

How many 5.56 rounds can you get for the price of an F-22. Let's say an F-22 is $100M (low, but a nice round number). Let's say a 5.56 round is $.10, again probably a little high, in military quanties.

That means, for the price of one F-22, you could buy over 1 billion 5.56 rounds.

Military procurement is screwed up, if getting enough ammo is a problem.

[MP5SD]

Praise the Lord and PASS THE AMMUNITION.

[FreedomPoster]

>>Maybe we should do a Freepathon and ask FReepers to clean out their gun safes.

You been smoking whacky weed?

[FreedomPoster]

"Buy two, shoot one, repeat" is my motto.

[DannyTN]

This is terrible. This demonstrates a lack of basic planning. Bullets is not something we should be running out of.

What if we had gotten in a major war with the soviets or china. We shouldn't ever be running out of bullets. We shouldn't ever let the ammo industry get so low that their is only one source.

Of course, my guess is that "shut downs in recent years" has a Clintonian ring to it. Did Gore reengineer basic military supply out of the government?

[TomasUSMC]

The Army’s use of an Israeli company for ammunition supplies has raised concerns among some in Congress. Insurgents in Iraq could use the Israeli purchases as a recruiting tool,

---

I would TELL the muslims that every round was dipped in Israeli pig fat.

[Sergio]

Requiring a higher level of marksmanship would also help alleviate the shortage somewhat.

Just my $.02 worth.

Best Regards

Sergio

[Tailback]

Requiring a higher level of marksmanship would also help alleviate the shortage somewhat.

To improve marksmanship, you need to practice shooting. That would take more ammo.

[Coleus]

WWII all over again.

[fso301]

Only one U.S. plant still produces small-caliber bullets for the military, sharply limiting the Army’s options.

Well, if the mohammedans are really looking for a target...