Pentagon to Destroy $1B in Ammunition

For those who cannot click the below links:

The Newsmax article title is a bit misleading once you read the article in it's entirety. Noone has given any numbers as to how much of that ammunition is justifiably bad or unable to be used for whatever reason. However, through interviews quoted in the article, quite a large bit of the ammunition is indeed usable and is only being destroyed because the branches of the US Armed Forces don't share excess ammo, hence, they just destroy it....for fiscal reasons and budgets is my personal guess.

This article has far deeper meanings to those people who will wonder why the Pentagon and other Government agencies have purchased billions of rounds of ammo in the last few years only to destroy some of it....or all of it, who knows. Is this to create a manufactured shortage of ammunition?

It amazes me how fiscally responsible the government wants it's citizens to be when it comes to paying taxes but when it comes to using those dollars responsibly by those responsible, responsibility goes out the door.

Also connected to this story was an unrelated article on the same page about how local police departments are facing a shortage of ammunition. This only bolsters the notion that there is indeed some nefarious government plot to suppress the availability of certain types of ammunition.

I will do a bit more digging to see if I can find any verifiable numbers when it comes to the percentage of good/usable ammunition that's due to be destroyed along with the unusable. In the meantime, I'm curious as to what the ATS community has to add.

"It's a rock" is not a suitable reply


www.newsmax.com... art&utm_medium=nmwidget&utm_campaign=widgetphase1


Local Police link: www.newsmax.com...

I can't find in the article what types of ammunition are involved. It could be referring to anything from 9mm ammo to Hellfire missiles.

originally posted by: butcherguy
I can't find in the article what types of ammunition are involved. It could be referring to anything from 9mm ammo to Hellfire missiles.

Man, I could use me some Hellfire missiles, damn wasteful government.

ETA:

Really don't know how to feel about this op, cause, on one hand government waste.

On the other, better destroyed than in a human being...

ammo manufacturers are dancing in the streets no doubt.
Anyhow, Newsmax is like the onion but without the humor. best to second source the story and get the actual facts.

Clearly though, this is a sign that Obama is about to unleash zombies and wants the people to have no ammo to brain em with.(guessing the newsmax theme...how close am I?)

originally posted by: benrl
Man, I could use me some Hellfire missiles, damn wasteful government.

I need em for hunting, and personal protection!!!

a reply to: butcherguy

I'd like to have some of them Hellfire missles. And some .22 ammo. And 7.62 X 39.

You'd think they'd sell it at an ammo convention so that they could at least try and get some of that money back. But this is the U.S. gov. we're talking about here.

The problem is that the services all use different databases for inventory, so they can't talk to each other. The Army only started giving other services their missile inventory last month when the GAO report was announced.

originally posted by: Zaphod58
The problem is that the services all use different databases for inventory, so they can't talk to each other. The Army only started giving other services their missile inventory last month when the GAO report was announced.

Yep, good ole government co-operation.

I always thought the whole point of NATO ammo was interchangeability, and assumed they would of been smart enough to include methods and procedures from transferring between branches...

Why do I keep assuming governments competent.

originally posted by: butcherguy
I can't find in the article what types of ammunition are involved. It could be referring to anything from 9mm ammo to Hellfire missiles.

The stockpile of conventional ammunition that the Defense Department manages totals $70 billion.

Maybe I'm going out on a limb, but I dont think a missile is considered "conventional ammunition." Nor is it technically "ammunition." It is itself, a weapon.

a reply to: Miniscuzz

This was allegedly $1b in ammo going up. That's what it looks like if you put it in one place and fire a twenty minute barrage of short range missiles into it.
Go to 50 seconds for the big one.


The argument over 'was it a nuke' is a silly psyop. The point is that was FOB Falcon and this was the motive for the 'Surge'. Don't bother looking for info on Falcon. You'll just be led to videos of a different and much smaller AHA incident caused by a brush fire. Apparently you get killed for telling the truth about Falcon. Bring it on guys, prove me right. Falcon was UTTERLY destroyed. That's what a billion in ammo can do.

a reply to: benrl

Technically they do. They have a conference every year where they discuss ammunition stockpiles. That's it though.

originally posted by: OuttaOC

originally posted by: butcherguy
I can't find in the article what types of ammunition are involved. It could be referring to anything from 9mm ammo to Hellfire missiles.

The stockpile of conventional ammunition that the Defense Department manages totals $70 billion.

Maybe I'm going out on a limb, but I dont think a missile is considered "conventional ammunition." Nor is it technically "ammunition." It is itself, a weapon.

I don't know.
I looked at various dictionaries for a definition. Most of them include bullets, shells and artillery rounds. Some put rockets and missiles into the definition.

But I do know that if you go to an ammunition depot (or dump) you can find all of those things, plus explosives.

I guess what I meant to say is that they did not specify what types of ammunition were involved. In my experience, conventional weapons means non-nuclear.

a reply to: OuttaOC

For purposes of the DoD, smaller missiles, such as the Hellfire are considered ammunition, because of cross service use. Larger missiles are not.

Might magically reappear in Ukraine or Syria

I stand corrected

Conventional Ammunition - dtic.mil

Glossary is on page 5. Having a hard time copying and pasting from the tablet...

a reply to: Miniscuzz
I can only think of it one way: I cant return ammo I buy...

a reply to: Miniscuzz
I can believe they may destroying ammo that has out lived its usefulness, such as the 105mm tank rounds, I still had them on my tank in Korea in 93, these were left over rounds from Vietnam. I have seen the army's inventory and from time to time we had to remove certain lot numbers because of the age of the ammo, good example would be a 105MM round cost about $2000 bucks a round multiply that by 40 rounds at a battalion size that's just about 4.5 Million dollars, spread that out through out the Services and I can see why the dollar amount is so high.

Personally I hope its just outdate ammo, no one should use stuff that is old and may not work, soldiers don't like cook offs those are the worst thing that can happen.

If I owned an ammo business and found out that all my product was being thrown out, I would stop selling it to those who did it. Especially with the shortage, I would know that I could still sell the product in the civilian market.
Firepiston

A few thoughts:

1. We provide weapons and munitions to other nations. Some of it above boards, some not. Is there something wrong with these lots?

2. Been in the military my whole life. Have seen a number of inter service transfers of ammunition. What is unique about this instance?

3. A cartridge is made up of components. Various components may be salvaged and re-utilized (e.g. brass). With the current spike in ammunition costs, I find it hard to believe this would not be done.

4. If the GAO is all over the lack of inter-service ammunition tracking software, why are they not all over the WFA (waste, fraud, and abuse) of supposedly $1 Billion worth of supplies?

I would really like to find out more on this.

Whatever happened to "million dollar minutes"? We used to blaze through old ammo like an Afghani wedding celebration to get rid of it several times a year. Or the CSM doled it out to veterans he knew. I've still got boxes of 50 cal from the last one.