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| WTF - Only 1 plant? Asshat Reporter also gives its location to terrorists |
| 2004-02-12 |
| EFL I’m blown away that we only have 1 plant - Piss Poor Planning LAKE CITY, Mo. — At the Army ammunition plant here, there’s no shortage of bullets. Since the war with Iraq this year, the plant — the United States’ only remaining military small-arms facility — has hired an extra 1,000 workers to manufacture an additional 3 million rounds each day. But for the first time, the output is not enough. So, for the first time in decades, the U.S. military is going elsewhere — like Illinois and Israel — for ammo supplies. The pressure is still on the Lake City plant, however, to play a key role in the battle strategy in the war on terror. |
| Posted by:Yosemite Sam |
| #11 In other news, a convoy of SUVs carrying swarthy, middle-eastern looking men and their dumpy kaffiyeh-clad coed girlfriends was seen heading for Lake City from a non-Christian non-Jewish House of A spokesman for CAIR denied the report and dismissed it as "racial profiling." |
| Posted by: Atomic Conspiracy 2004-2-12 9:22:49 PM |
| #10 Valentine, yes there are private ammo suppliers but, with the exception of the Israelis, they were not (and most are not) set up to work with tungsten bullets in their cartridges rather than lead. Tungsten is harder to machine, so at a minimum the bullet component of the cartridge would probably need to be made outside these factories. And, as I mentioned above, the point of impact of, say, a 9mm or 5.2mm cartridge with tungsten bullet is different from the point of impact of a cartridge of the same calibre and load but with a lead bullet. So buying commercial rounds would not be of much use to the military. This story is old ... it was reported a few weeks ago ... and contracts have already been let to the Israelis and I think one other factory to supplement production at the MO plant. Part of the problem is that as reserves and national guard are called up, a lot of people have to re-qualify with weapons. That can chew up a lot of ammo and drew down stockpiles significantly. |
| Posted by: rkb 2004-2-12 2:27:17 PM |
| #9 Actually there is only one GOVERNMENT owned plant left. There are several private ammo suppliers, winchester and IMI come immediately to mind. And yes they are being offered contracts, but this was all caused by a logistics screw up in the military that it learned from the business world called "just in time" delivery. Namely the military has basically gotten rid of its stockpiles of ammo and other weapons and even other logistically important supplies thinking they could get it from other suppliers. This thinking made for some really tight situations in Iraq, we made it through, but it was a close thing as far as logistics go. |
| Posted by: Valentine 2004-2-12 12:49:24 PM |
| #8 yes, the decision to consolidate to one supplier was made during the Clinton administration IIRC And no, sports/hunting ammo companies can't gear up unless they change their manufacturing a bunch: for environmental reasons the US military is constrained NOT to use lead in military ammo. Right now it's tungsten, I think (am writing in a hurry at lunch ...). Moreover, even if we waived that rule, since tungsten bullets shoot differently from lead ones, it would take a whole lot of retraining before our troops would be able to use the reasonably well. Sigh. |
| Posted by: rkb 2004-2-12 12:35:33 PM |
| #7 I'm sure a few of the manufacturers of sports and hunting ammo can gear up to manufacture miltiary rounds readily enough, if the Government offers them a contract for it. As for Israeli ammo, I know it's good - just look at the results. I'd be a bit more worried if we were buying ammo from Russia or Western Europe. I think the Illinois plant belongs to Remington, and can easily convert part of its facilities to manufacturing small-caliber military ammo. The big crunch is probably in larger, multi-milimeter-size rounds for Bradleys, some of our choppers, etc. |
| Posted by: Old Patriot 2004-2-12 12:07:13 PM |
| #6 This is an example of "economical" military planning, i.e. planning that is based only on lowering near-term costs. When this dumb decision was made [5-10 years ago], you can bet that the current shortage scenario was brought up and promptly dismissed. The worst thing is that nobody who made this stupid decision will pay for it - they probably retired years ago! |
| Posted by: OldFan 2004-2-12 12:03:31 PM |
| #5 Duh...is someone thinking? Ammuntion...explosives...fire...one factory...incredible..... |
| Posted by: dataman1 2004-2-12 11:39:50 AM |
| #4 Well, someone's not to bright if we do only have one plant. Although, it may not have been necessary before, someone should have stepped forward and pointed out this glaring mistake. Unless, of course, the factory had been located inside NORAD. |
| Posted by: 98Zulu 2004-2-12 11:32:24 AM |
| #3 I had saw a report on this on Fox last night, and was shocked to discover this. Makes me wonder how many ammo manufacturers are actually left in this country. I also wonder if that glut of surplus ammo that was on the market some years back hurt our manufacturers. |
| Posted by: Lil Dhimmi 2004-2-12 10:58:53 AM |
| #2 The many bans on all sorts of weapons by states and the Federal government restricts the market for this caliber ammunition. If we could buy rifles that used these calibers, there would be more plants making them. |
| Posted by: Chuck Simmins 2004-2-12 10:28:37 AM |
| #1 It's that Peace Dividend coming back to bite us. |
| Posted by: Steve 2004-2-12 10:16:55 AM |