Pentagon Waste $1Billion in Ammo!!

[ryan_j]

What I want to know though, is how come we shoot old soviet steel core ammo with no problems, but US military surplus ammo goes bad?

 

[adit]

What I want to know though, is how come we shoot old soviet steel core ammo with no problems, but US military surplus ammo goes bad?

2 reasons:

Somebody needs to get paid.
Supply is increasing and they need to keep it out of "your" hands.

 

[tapeman1]

What I want to know though, is how come we shoot old soviet steel core ammo with no problems, but US military surplus ammo goes bad?

Ours contains dairy.

 

[Major03]

Stored properly, it doesn't go bad.

I wonder if it's ammo that is no longer in spec with the weapons that are T/O. Like old .30/06 or the older M193 5.56mm with the lighter weight 55 gr bullets.

Either way, sure would be nice to give to the CMP for civilian re-purposing. It is our tax dollars that originally paid for it after all.

 

[Inigoes]

Stored properly, it doesn't go bad.

I wonder if it's ammo that is no longer in spec with the weapons that are T/O. Like old .30/06 or the older M193 5.56mm with the lighter weight 55 gr bullets.

Either way, sure would be nice to give to the CMP for civilian re-purposing. It is our tax dollars that originally paid for it after all.

Even 45 ACP would be great to give CMP

 

[Tyeraxus]

Stored properly, it doesn't go bad.

Truth (somewhat). However, I remember a story from one of my acquisition classes - apparently sometime in the 90s, a warehouse storing ammo had leak that never got fixed. Millions of rounds were damaged and had to be replaced. The instructor used it as an example of why to write O&M contracts properly (warehouse was GOCO - Gov Owned, Contractor Operated), but it stuck with me as one of the small things that affects a market.

Also, from further reading on the topic, it appears to include "missiles," and likely also includes arty rounds (because what journalist knows anything about arms or munitions). When a single M107 shell can approach $4k, it's not hard to rack up a bunch of zeroes on "bad" or "old" ammo.

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/...arper-gao-waste/8145729/#sthash.4qGwyZUL.dpuf

 

[HT4]

It was probably 6 cases of .223 they got from "Cheaper Than Dirt" a year ago.

 

[Robert]

It was probably 6 cases of .223 they got from "Cheaper Than Dirt" a year ago.

Now that's some funny stuff right there...

 

[dist1646]

2 reasons:

Somebody needs to get paid.
Supply is increasing and they need to keep it out of "your" hands.

Sounds about right to me!

 

[Sirex]

That would actually make excellent sense.

Which is why they can't do it. They'll need to fund a $12,000,000.00 environmental study on the toxic effect of the powders, powders, and lead distribution into the soil. Then have to contract a hazmat company, approved by Obama, and paid an astronomical price to "safely and responsibly" decommission the ammo and recycle the usable components. So, instead of wasting $1B, it'll more likely be almost $2B. But hey, it's only money, right? Why not save that ammo for our future war with China? Or Russia over Ukraine? We have so many wars yet to declare, the century is still young.

 

[Doctor_M]

Anyone else think that this is a cover for ammo that will wind up being shipped to some guerilla forces somewhere to aid rebels in that region?

That's the one...

 

[oldsarge]

Let me add a little insight to the overall picture. Having been in EOD for over 20 years, we destroyed tons of "unservicable" ammo. The majority of it was because the ammo had lost all of its identification data required by the government for inventory. Once a box of ammo is opened and loaded into a clip or magazine, the lot number and various other info is lost. When the soldier comes back from the field the unused rounds were usually dumped into an ammo can at the armory. If the armorer could issue them again before the next official inventory or send them to the range, all was good. Once an official inventory was conducted, any rounds without a lot number to ID them by, had to be destroyed. The best example of this was when the military switched from the 1911 to the M9. Thousands upon thousands of rounds, some that had probably set in mags since WWII, were turned in. Our team personally destroyed over 100 shipping conexs filled with "bad" ammo. Some looked as good as the day it was made while some looked like it had been buried under the ammo bunker rather than in it. There was no way this ammo could have been resold to the public without extensive sorting and quality control that would have been a major undertaking and expense. Think for a minute what you would do if you bought a can of surplus ammo that had just one round that was not right and it ruined your pistol or worse yet injured or killed someone through malfunction. I believe this is a liability that the government does not want to face.

 

[Nanook]

Dammit Sarge, keep your common sense to yourself....I was looking around for my pitchfork.

 

[IndispensableDestiny]

I read the source story in USA Today and the GAO report. USA Today is misrepresenting the content of this GAO report. The report covers ammunition supply management, not diposal. The report references an earlier audit that reads: "According to a 2010 Army Audit Agency report, the Army had significantly underestimated the funding requirements needed to perform its conventional ammunition stockpile demilitarization mission has grown to over 557,000 tons, representing a $1 billion liability demilitarization mission . . . ."

The Army is always doing demil. The report is saying they have 557,000 tons of junk with no funds to destroy it. It could be artillery shells, propellent, mortars, det cord, blasting caps, etc. It does not mean it's all small arms ammo.

 

[Sirex]

I don't know, as a taxpayer I already paid for it. Then they don't use it. It sits. Then they want to destroy it because they are too lazy to sort it by condition and lot? I know last year, when I couldn't find ammo anywhere, I would have been glad to get some surplus US ammo. I had some 40ks Mosin ammo that shot okay, and I know American ammo isn't up the the quality standards of 1940's Russian ammo, but we the people are paying for this crap twice over and has not even gotten used. And some troop outposts in Afghanistan run out of ammo? Why not at least donate the questionable ammo to the Syrian rebels or Ukraine? It just burns me to see so much waste in the government, then they ask for more $$.

 

[jpk1md]

At a bare MINIMUM there's no excuse that this ammo was not demilled and legal components sold to highest bidder.

This is nothing short of criminal behavior and taxpayer abuse

 

[smokey]

Wait....so you guys are telling me that the gubment was inefficient and their lack of logistics lead to waste and excess? GTFOOH nooooo waayyyyyyyy