Army: Now that you ask, we really don't know where all of our weapons are

HOTAIR ^ | 10/12/2023 | JAZZ SHAW

[bitt]

It’s well known that the United States Army and Marines maintain a significant stockpile of used, damaged, or older models of weapons. Some are damaged and waiting to be safely salvaged, but many of them are still functional, requiring a bit of cleaning or maintenance. Some may be perfectly fine, but they’ve been replaced by newer models. Now that our allies in Israel are rushing to outfit an expanded military force to take on Hamas and their civilians are looking for hardware also, someone finally thought to ask the army about those stockpiles and how we could ship out the usable equipment to help our friends. But they answer they received from Army Undersecretary Gabe Camarillo on Tuesday basically amounted to, ‘Weapons? Did you say weapons? Let’s see… where did we put those…’ (Government Executive)

The U.S. Army has warehouses packed with weapons its soldiers no longer need. But the service doesn’t know where they all are, nor what condition they’re in.

Now, amid increased demand from U.S. allies and partners, Army leaders are pushing for an updated database of those stored weapons.

“Sometimes we don’t really know where all of our excess equipment is,” Army Undersecretary Gabe Camarillo said Tuesday at the Association of the U.S. Army annual conference in Washington. “We have a lot of it, and it’s accumulated over time.”

We’re not talking about the big-ticket military equipment here. When it comes to our most advanced fighter jets, submarines, long-range precision missiles and ICBMS, we’re pretty good about keeping track of those. But the stockpiles in question involve more conventional rifles, sidearms, ammunition, and maybe some shoulder-fired rockets. They get shuffled around a lot in various warehouses across the country and around the world. And we obviously don’t know precisely where some of them are in case they need to be shipped out or, in some cases, if we even still have them. And that’s a problem.

This is an issue that won’t be resolved overnight because it’s been building for so many decades. And the main reason for that is the fact that our military is so massive and has a gigantic budget. The Pentagon orders tons of material each year that is very likely perceived to be necessary. Who is responsible for periodically reviewing and evaluating all of this equipment. At least in some cases, I would guess that the answer is nobody. It’s all “on the books” someplace, but the physical reality can be scattered to the wind.

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[FLT-bird]

What we have here is a lack of basic inventory control. Fortunately, there are organizations which are experts at this. They're called "retailers". They too track the acquisition, storage, movement and ultimately sale of billions of items ie stock keeping units or SKUs. Talk to Wal-Mart. They're the best at it. Talk to Target. They are also at least competent at it. You need a computer information system. hand-held scanners and cheap RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) tags you can slap on each item. Those RFID tags only cost a few cents each - making it economical to put on one each rifle, pack of ammo, helmet, etc. This CAN be done, it IS done by the private sector all the time. If you can't measure it, you can't control it. Time to start getting a handle on the inventory.

[Syncro]

Ah ha!

They are arming the illegal alien gangs and the new terror cells started by the gotaways and most of the millions of invaders waved in by the #BidenCartel #BidenObamaCaliphate
#ObamasArmy

[jagusafr]

At a guess - Camp Stanley here in San Antonio. There doesn’t appear to be any other reason for its existence.

[Thunder90]

Ukraine, Taiwan, South Korea. No replacement.

[voicereason]

But hey, there are now gays in uniform and the military is ‘Fabulous’.

[kickstart]

I am a U.S. citizen, where are my free weapons?

[DariusBane]

Yet if Private Snuffy can’t find his canteen cover...

[Vaduz]

Doesn’t the postal system own 9 million rounds of ammo?.

[larrytown]

They’re in an enormous white warehouse in Anniston Depot.

[fini]

"Not to mention, in the Marine Corps, one wrong digit on an 80-column card order can get you a visit from NCIS!! I KNOW! When you accidentally try to order ten M16s while serving with a combat service detachment in the Phillippines, THEY WILL ASK QUESTIONS!!"

Ha, ha. In the 70s, an infantry unit in Okinawa had a M60 machine gun that was unserviceable (warped receiver), so they ordered a replacement M60. Except they clerk did not look too close at the National Stock Number and instead of a M60 machinegun, he ordered a M60 tank. No one caught the error until they unloaded the tank off the ship. Luckily for all concerned, the Tank unit on he island was short one tank (sent back for rebuild). So the tank unit got the new tank and the external machinegun on the turret was sent to the infantry unit.

I knew a guy that was peripherally involved in the incident. He said that a quick investigation showed that it was just an error and recommended no formal punishment, just maybe some lowered performance marks. The general at the time said no lowered performance marks and added something to the effect of, "Well, you might think it was an error but it improved the combat readiness of two combat units. So I am going to call it "Divine Intervention."

[oldtech]

We sure recognize who some of these corrupt,inept idiots are, but what we don’t know about them is two-fold; why they were hired in the first place & secondly why they are kept on the payroll. I think Joe Biden knows the answers to these questions, but refuses to answer on grounds of the 5th Amendment.

[oldtech]

I’d say that General who ordered that really used his head. As a veteran, I loved that.