'We are running out of bombs': US admiral warns military is hitting ISIS so heavily stocks are

dailymail.co.uk ^ | 4/30/17 | Darren Boyle

[ColdOne]

FULL TITLE.........................'We are running out of bombs': US admiral warns military is hitting ISIS so heavily stocks are running low.................. US Pacific Commander Admiral Harry Harris testified before a Senate committee He admitted intensive operations against ISIS have depleted stocks of bombs He also warned the US needed to improve anti-missile and ship defences Admiral Harris also told the Senate he needed a replacement for cluster bombs

[sargon]

I willing to help the US military build more bombs if they need my volunteer assistance...

[Cobra64]

Do you really think an Admiral made that statement without realizing the implications, or have you considered he was playing psyops?

[Cobra64]

No worries. We have thousands of Tomahawks.

http://www.militarytimes.com/articles/tomahawk-missile-military-long-range-syria

[LegendHasIt]

I’m surprised we have any left at all, the way we have been wasting them on empty desert, ‘friendly forces’ and even our own troops.

But the military-industrial complex that owns so many of our warmongering neo-con Senators like John McCain and Miss Lindsey will be happy to ramp up production...... for just a slight extra charge to the American Taxpayer.

[BwanaNdege]

He was testifying before Congress. He’s obliged to answer their questions. They can always close the meeting if they want. If you’re going to blame anyone it’s congress for asking in a public meeting, not the admiral, no quotes needed.

But, but, but.... When the Senator asked "Why do you want money to buy more bombs?", the Admiral should have said:

1)It's a Secret and you have neither the Clearance nor the Need to Know, Senator. or...

2)I could tell you, Senator, but then I'd have to kill you and everyone in this room. or...

3)We are running out of bombs, Senator.

/S

BTW, Hugin, thanks for putting a little perspective into the discussion!

[SaveFerris]

Somewhere is the animated .gif of Bugs Bunny smacking bombs with a hammer on the assembly line...

[JoeProBono]

[null and void]

No fighting in here, this is the War Room!

[SaveFerris]

I had faith!

;)

[The Westerner]

Hope Pres. Trump (quietly) made the same calls. I’ve long believed the goal of the Obama machine was to deplete our military and get our elite forces killed in the process. Sounds insane, doesn’t it? But electing a man named Hussein after 9/11 seemed unthinkable to me, too.

[billyboy15]

:-)

[ETCM]

I bet we still have warehouses full of old fashioned dumb bombs.

We have been using them in pretty large numbers since Gulf War I, where we figured out they were just not good enough. In the late 90's we developed a bolt-on kit that converts our old 500, 1,000 and 2,000 lb "dumb" bombs to "smart" bombs, known as JDAMs.

I would think the Admiral is including JDAMs in his warning, but it's possible we have plenty of bombs and just need to purchase more guidance kits to upgrade them.

[PhiloBedo]

The unintended consequence is, our enemies would be quick to shoot down legitimate airliners.

I would guess there is some convention that would prohibit your scenario, although, I agree, that’s never stopped the terrorists (and that’s the reason we should not give them any quarter).

[Gritty]

I bet we still have warehouses full of old fashioned dumb bombs. Use them.

That presents two problems.

First, they are inherently much less accurate than the guided ones and it will require probably 20x as many to even approach the same effectiveness on a target and that will cut even further into our basic war stocks. Second, our aircrews are not nearly as well trained in dropping these dumb bombs as they used to be, so their tactical accuracy will be even worse than years ago when we used them almost exclusively and guys ere well trained in their use.

It is better, cheaper, and more effective to ramp up the production of the guidance packages (or the bomb bodies if that is where the shortage lies) if that can be done. If not, carefully ration the existing bombs for essential uses only and use other munitions when possible until more stocks become available. Until then, our overall effectiveness on the battlefield will be degraded somewhat.

No doubt we can thank Obama and his nincompoop DOD for the shortages. As usual, the policies of this wretched man and the Democrat Party will continue to unnecessarily cost more American lives and a degraded military structure for quite some years yet. It will take time to fix this.

[GenXteacher]

Hmmm....Sort of good news...If the ordnance is being expended it is not sitting around getting unstable and somebody that doesn’t like us is getting turned into paste. And we can fire up some new production, put some of our people to work.

[The Westerner]

Gritty, have you any knowledge of stepped up training of those who will deploy these weapons? If you say they are not as well trained as in the past, has the new Defense Sec made changes? I have begun to hear bombing practice at a nearby location to me. In the 80’s, the booms were frequent. Under Clinton, only heard them prior to raids on aspirin factories.
Under Obama hardly at all. I’m hoping Trump is undoing the mess. Thanks in advance. TW

[Gritty]

I have no personal information on what is currently being done. If you are near a gunnery range, you would not necessarily hear the training munitions go off unless you were very close as most training munitions have very small explosive charges rather than hundreds of pounds of high explosives. Units being deployed would have their training stepped up from normal prior to overseas deployment.

However, manually dropping "dumb" bombs is a complicated and finely tuned skill just like competition shooting. You have to practice constantly to stay proficient. As training time is always limited, most effort would normally go to those most likely to be employed. In the case of modern munitions, it would be the "smart" ones. Pilot proficiency would tend to lag in the older and less likely to use gunnery skills.