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| DOD to destroy $1Billion-plus in ammunition |
| 2014-04-29 |
| The Pentagon plans to destroy more than $1 billion worth of ammunition although some of those bullets and missiles could still be used by troops, according to the Pentagon and congressional sources. It's impossible to know what portion of the arsenal slated for destruction — valued at $1.2 billion by the Pentagon — remains viable because the Defense Department's inventory systems can't share data effectively, according to a Government Accountability Office report obtained by USA TODAY. The Army and Pentagon, in a statement, acknowledged "the need to automate the process" and will make it a priority in future budgets. In all, the Pentagon manages a stockpile of conventional ammunition worth $70 billion. The effect of inaccurate accounting of ammunition for troops at war was outside the scope of the study. However, there were limited supplies at times of .50-caliber machine gun and 9mm handgun ammunition at the height of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, according to a senior military officer who spoke on condition of anonymity to talk about the issue. The report illustrates the obsolete nature of the Pentagon's inventory systems for ammunition. A request for ammunition from the Marine Corps, for example, is e-mailed to the Army. The e-mail is printed out and manually retyped into the Army system because the services cannot share data directly. Not only is this time consuming, but it can introduce errors — by an incorrect keystroke, for example. Waste, buying new ammunition while usable stockpiles exist, can occur "because the Army does not report information on all available and usable items," the report states. The annual conference among the services — although it saves about $70 million per year, according to the Pentagon — is inadequate. The services, in fiscal year 2012, exchanged 44 million items, including 32 million bullets for machine guns and pistols. "Specifically, the Army's report does not include information from prior years about usable ammunition that was unclaimed by another service and stored for potential foreign military sales or slated for potential disposal," the report says. Missiles are another source for concern, the report notes. The Army has an inventory of missiles, including Stingers, Javelins and Hellfires, that has totaled more than $14 billion in recent years. Hellfire missiles have been a weapon of choice for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and in the CIA-run Predator and Reaper drone missions to kill terrorists in places like Yemen. The GAO found that the Army and its missile command "do not contribute to required annual report." The reason, Army officials told investigators, is that it "rarely has items to offer for redistribution." Without its cooperation, the Army "risks others services spending additional funds to procure missiles that are already unused and usable in the Army's stockpile." The Army, in a statement, said that it began offering that information to the other services last month. In its recommendations, the GAO urged Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel to require the Army to make known information on all available for use by all services. |
| Posted by:Pappy |
| #10 I still have a few rounds of my grandfather's WW I .45 ACP ammo - still shoots fine, could use a bunch more. Of course at DOD hammer & toilet seat prices $1 billion only buys a couple bricks of .22 LR, right? |
| Posted by: Glenmore 2014-04-29 20:30 |
| #9 I used to have a .30-40 Krag rifle. It had the smoothest bolt action I ever used. The locking lugs were subject to cracking. I hand loaded the cartridges light. Used them for deer. Checked the lugs one time and they were cracked. End of that. |
| Posted by: Alaska Paul 2014-04-29 20:25 |
| #8 We got told to slow it down, due too the number of M-60 and M-2 barrels we were burning up. |
| Posted by: Pliny Cliper2441 2014-04-29 16:57 |
| #7 My son in law former Marine worked on F-18s at Mirimar. He once ordered air refueling nozzles for F-18s and received case of Frag hand grenades. Turns out the hard part was sending them back - it is a one-way supply system - sorry no returns. Similar thing happened to me in the 70's. I was stationed at Clark AB, in 74 when we pulled the last AF Security Police out of Vietnam. Problem was all their supplies were in the pipeline and just kept coming. We shot up all the ammo at the ranges and gave the brass to the locals. |
| Posted by: Pliny Cliper2441 2014-04-29 16:53 |
| #6 I know when I was in the Army we destroyed ammo nearing the end of its expiration date all the time. We used it for live fire exercises. Ammo/grenades/rockets were used and troops got training so it was win-win. Nowdays I can see the idiots at the top just using demo to get rid of it instead of letting the troops have fun and real live experience with the stuff. |
| Posted by: DarthVader 2014-04-29 13:19 |
| #5 ...oops, make that #1. |
| Posted by: P2Kontheroad 2014-04-29 07:54 |
| #4 The article is about accountability of stocks and inter-service transfers not really destruction. As #3 points out, they're still holding Spanish American War ammo [which BTW was transferable to veterans groups who perform gun salutes at vet funerals. The Krag-Jřrgensen is still a nice rifle.] |
| Posted by: P2Kontheroad 2014-04-29 07:53 |
| #3 I could probably use that stuff, Condor. |
| Posted by: Deacon Blues 2014-04-29 07:29 |
| #2 The Hastings stuff is really well past it's "Use By" date and should be properly offed. |
| Posted by: 3dc 2014-04-29 02:06 |
| #1 Does this include the Civil War and Spanish Am war ammo just East of Hastings NE in bunkers on the south side of US Hwy 6? Map Link |
| Posted by: 3dc 2014-04-29 02:04 |