Even
in the age of unmanned aerial vehicles, satellite-guided
bombs and night-vision goggles, the US army cannot fight
a war without its most basic necessity: ammunition.
And with more troops in Iraq, more intense
combat than expected and the need for almost every soldier
from frontline infantryman to rearguard logistician to
be prepared for an ambush, the army suddenly finds itself
in a bullet crunch.
According to a requisition last week by
the Army Field Support Command, the service will need
300 million to 500 million more small-arms ammunition
rounds a year for at least five years, or more than 1.5
billion rounds a year for combat and training. And because
the single army-owned, small-caliber ammunition factory
in Lake City, Missouri, can produce only 1.2 billion cartridges
annually, the army is suddenly scrambling to get private
defense contractors to help fill the gap.
The bullet problem has its roots in a
Pentagon effort to restock its depleted war material reserve.
But it has been exacerbated by the ongoing operations
in Afghanistan and Iraq, where rearguard and supply units
have been thinly-stretched throughout the countryside,
occasionally without active duty combat soldiers to protect
them.
The army's formal solicitation acknowledges
that its current manufacturing abilities have been all
but exhausted. "Increasing military contingencies
have created a situation where the capability to produce
small caliber ammunition through conventional methods
has been fully exercised," it said.
Specifically, the army is looking for
300 million more rounds annually, potentially rising to
500 million a year.
Alliant
Techsystems, which runs the army-owned factory in
Lake City, is in talks with the military about remedying
the bullet production shortage, insisting it could expand
output by 200 million to 300 million a year.
General Dynamics, the US defense contractor
which submitted its proposed solution on Tuesday, said
it had pulled together several small bullet suppliers
- including Winchester, a unit of Olin Corporation; Israel
Military Industries; and Canada's SNC Technologies - to
meet the army's gap.
"We're using so much ammunition in
Iraq there isn't enough capacity around," said Eric
Hugel, a defense industry analyst at Sephens Inc. "They
have to go internationally."
See earlier
story on this issue
Tony's
Note:
If you are a shooter, I would recommend that you buy and
save ammunition right now to make sure that you have what
you want while it is still easily obtained and still very
inexpensive. That may change soon, so be careful.
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