← Autodidact Archive · Original Dissent · Sertorius
Thread ID: 13777 | Posts: 17 | Started: 2004-05-19
2004-05-19 09:46 | User Profile
Friday, May 7, 2004
Army bullets in short supply
America searches for 2nd firm to make enough ammunition
By Edmond Lococo / Bloomberg News
EDINA, Minn. ââ¬â Alliant Techsystems Inc., the U.S. Armyââ¬â¢s sole supplier of bullets, said it canââ¬â¢t keep up with demand that is rising to its highest level since the Vietnam war as the United States fights terrorism and conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The Army is looking for a second ammunitions source, Alliant Chief Executive Daniel Murphy said on an earnings conference call. The service wants 2 billion rounds of bullets and Alliant will make 1.2 billion this year, up from 1 billion last year, he said.
Alliant is in talks to expand its Army-owned Lake City facility to produce another 300 million rounds and the Army is seeking a supplier of 500 million more. Demand could be this high for five years, Murphy said.
U.S. Army spokesman Major Gary Tallman didnââ¬â¢t immediately return calls seeking comment.
Alliant is boosting its work force 6 percent to 14,000 this year to handle orders for products including M-16 rifle ammunition.
The U.S.-led coalition in Iraq is struggling to control rising violence that in April alone killed more U.S. soldiers than during last yearââ¬â¢s war, which lasted about six weeks.
The Army could have difficulty meeting its demand as there are few producers outside of Alliant or General Dynamics Corp. capable of producing military ammunition on the scale required, said Loren Thompson, an analyst at Arlington, Va.-based Lexington Institute, which studies national security issues.
ââ¬ÅThe Armyââ¬â¢s industrial base is busted,ââ¬Â Thompson said. ââ¬ÅA wide range of consumables from ammunition to armor simply canââ¬â¢t be produced at an adequate rate during wartime. There is almost no surge capacity.ââ¬Â
The Army tries to make up for its lack of surge capacity by stockpiling material before conflicts, Thompson said. The strategy works in conflicts of short duration, but is becoming a problem as the Iraq war enters its second year, he said.
So much for the wonderful economic policies that the U.S. government has carried out over the past years. It is pitiful that a country that the tub thumping flag wavers love to refer to as ââ¬Åthe worldââ¬â¢s only superpowerââ¬Â canââ¬â¢t even supply itself with something as basic and necessary as ammunition. This is what happens when you ship your manufacturing capabilities overseas. Fortunately, we have the ââ¬Åonly democracy in the Middle Eastââ¬Â to help save us. Israeli Military Industries is being fitted out to supply some of the short fall here. While this is excellent ammo, (I know this from first hand experience) I hope that someone from D.O.D.ââ¬â¢s procurement office goes over the contract with a fine tooth comb to insure we donââ¬â¢t get screwed anymore than we normally are.
2004-05-19 19:21 | User Profile
Fortunately, we have the ââ¬Åonly democracy in the Middle Eastââ¬Â to help save us.Israeli Military Industries is being fitted out to supply some of the short fall here.
Suuprise, suuprise, suuuprise! Of course it could be that they're the only country in the world willing to help supply our war machine over there. At a healthy markup of course. :angry:
While this is excellent ammo, (I know this from first hand experience) I hope that someone from D.O.D.ââ¬â¢s procurement office goes over the contract with a fine tooth comb to insure we donââ¬â¢t get screwed anymore than we normally are.
True about the ammo, but then the IDF needs the best when they're staring down some seven-year-olds, crouching behind their dads, or heaven forfend, armed with rocks, the oldest known WMD you know. The ammo's essentially Winchester, isn't it? Made in the "SLC" on exported U.S. machinery while we can't even come up with ammo here. Ditto on the accounting practices...
2004-05-20 00:03 | User Profile
[QUOTE]So much for the wonderful economic policies that the U.S. government has carried out over the past years. It is pitiful that a country that the tub thumping flag wavers love to refer to as ââ¬Åthe worldââ¬â¢s only superpowerââ¬Â canââ¬â¢t even supply itself with something as basic and necessary as ammunition. This is what happens when you ship your manufacturing capabilities overseas. Fortunately, we have the ââ¬Åonly democracy in the Middle Eastââ¬Â to help save us. Israeli Military Industries is being fitted out to supply some of the short fall here. [/QUOTE]The ones to suffer from the greed and lack of foresight are of no interest to the loud-mouthed patriots. Everyday we sink a little lower.
2004-05-20 09:22 | User Profile
Edward,
Far From Ready for More War With battered gear and nerves, a third of the Army is 'unfit to fight' but preparing to return.
By Esther Schrader Times Staff Writer May 15, 2004
FT. CAMPBELL, Ky. ââ¬â From their first days as "Screaming Eagles," the 18,000 soldiers of the Army's 101st Airborne Division are taught to be ready for anything. As the force's proud creed goes: "First in, last out."
But at its sprawling home base ââ¬â after a long year in Iraq that wreaked havoc with the blades of its helicopters, the sights of its guns and the nerves of its soldiers ââ¬â the 101st is as far from ready as it has ever been.
Outside a gun locker the other day, a soldier used a bristled brush to scrape out Iraqi sand lodged in the seams of his rucksack. In the motor pool, mechanics pulled the transmission from a bomb-battered Humvee. At a social worker's office, a soldier ticked off the names of buddies he had watched die and mourned the breakup of his romance back home.
The 101st has no choice but to fix itself. And fast. With Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld saying this week that the U.S. military presence in Iraq will stand at 135,000 troops for the foreseeable future, the Pentagon must prepare these soldiers to return to the fight.
What the 101st is going through is a microcosm of what lies ahead for the entire Army. Iraq is its biggest test since Vietnam, and the rigors of fighting a counterinsurgency have demolished much of the Army's equipment and allowed its soldiers' skills to atrophy. For the first time, three Army divisions ââ¬â more than a third of its combat troops ââ¬â are classified as unfit to fight.
This is a new experience for the Army. In World War II, conscript troops fought for the duration and came home to stay. In Vietnam, soldiers drafted for two-year stretches met up with units already in combat. In Iraq, a volunteer Army that for decades has been largely a peacetime force is being asked to fight hard for a year or more, come home, and gear up to go back again, with no end in sight.
"We have never had the need for a huge Army to stay engaged like we are now," said Col. Michael Linnington, who commands the 3,400 soldiers of the 101st Airborne's 3rd Brigade. "Today if you're an active-duty unit, either you're going be in Iraq, or you're going be preparing to go back to Iraq. That's the way it's going to be."
Along with the 101st, the 82nd Airborne, which returned to Ft. Bragg, N.C., in March, and the 4th Infantry Division, whose soldiers still are returning to Ft. Hood, Texas, and Ft. Carson, Colo., came back from Iraq at readiness levels that the Army says left them unfit. Another division that had been due to return home this spring, the 1st Armored, was ordered in April to stay in Iraq at least three more months. When the 1st Armored does come home, it will likely be in the same shape.
Here on the base straddling the Kentucky-Tennessee border, the 101st has been given more than $100 million, and six months, to get into fighting form.
It is an irony of war, especially the kind being waged in Iraq, that fighting does not necessarily make you stronger. Units like the 101st train for years to attain peak form ââ¬â every soldier a strong marksman, every chopper ready to fly ââ¬â then watch skills fall victim to long hours of waiting and watching for the enemy's next move, living in dust and sand, feeling the triggers of their guns jam and their truck tires wear thin.
In Iraq, that problem has been compounded by the fact that divisions are not always fighting as they were trained to. Tank squads have been driving Humvees. Artillerymen have become military police. The 101st, which gained fame in World War II and Vietnam for parachuting behind enemy lines, spent much of its time in Iraq tracking snipers, avoiding roadside bombs and manning checkpoints.
But in order to be judged as fit for combat, the 101st and other returning divisions must restore themselves to readiness in every aspect of their potential mission ââ¬â even those that aren't required in Iraq.
That means working through a checklist that includes everything from ensuring its soldiers are outfitted with the proper number of chemical protective outfits to verifying that enough of its soldiers can run a speedy mile. On parking lots throughout Ft. Campbell, soldiers have laid out the long strings of parachutes to make sure every one is free from knots. Inside the base gymnasium, they practice wrestling holds to prove themselves capable of hand-to-hand combat.
The bulk of the division's troops returned here in February; 58 of their comrades died in Iraq; 387 were wounded. Their equipment, transported on seven ships from Kuwait to Jacksonville, Fla., is still arriving at Ft. Campbell by the trainload.
As they undertake the task of restoring themselves to fighting form, perhaps the biggest unknown for the soldiers of the 101st is how they will emerge from the war experience ââ¬â and how their lives and struggles at home will affect their ability to get back into shape.
The 101st and the other two divisions returned with a total of 1,000 aircraft, 124,000 communications and electronics systems, 5,700 tracked vehicles, 45,700 wheeled vehicles, 1,400 missile systems and more than 232,000 other weapons. Most were jammed with sand, burned out from extended use in desert heat or otherwise in need of repair.
The Pentagon has budgeted $4 billion just to get the Army's smaller equipment in working order. That doesn't include the cost of repairing helicopters and other large weapons systems. The funds budgeted in fiscal 2004 for what the Army calls the reset "cover only known losses at this point, and we expect that they will grow as operations continue," Gen. George W. Casey, the Army's vice chief of staff, warned the readiness subcommittee of the House Armed Service Committee.
"We also predict that, as we inspect and repair equipment, the number of items cataloged as uneconomically repairable will increase," he said during testimony in March.
At Ft. Campbell, Linnington insisted that were it not for the sorry state of the equipment, his troops could go back to Iraq tomorrow. But, he said, "it would be painful, really painful."
One recent day, Linnington and his battalion leaders watched a presentation on the division's status. On a screen flashed a chart that laid out the basic skills required of infantrymen ââ¬â from the ability to run six miles carrying a 50-pound load to marksmanship. A green circle next to each category denoted battalions whose soldiers had proved themselves ready.
"I want to understand why I'm not seeing much green here," Linnington said.
On parking lots throughout the base, soldiers have laid out row upon row of guns, chemical masks, medical kits and small arms ââ¬â each pulled out of containers to be meticulously checked and inventoried.
In the motor pools, missile-equipped combat vehicles, each driven more than 30,000 miles in Iraq, are getting windshields made of thicker glass. Boxes loaded with new fuel tanks, wiper blades and engines are stacked against the walls. The scope of the work is so overwhelming that division leaders hired 45 civilian mechanics to help out.
There are so many helicopters in need of work that the Army has parceled out the effort among several bases, supply depots and civilian contractors. Chief among the tasks is replacing fiberglass blades that Army aviation mechanics had been protecting from the abrasive Iraqi sand by covering them with duct tape.
In World War II, the Army more often than not left behind vehicles pounded in battle. Troops stationed in Europe today use the wreckage for target practice. In Iraq, everything that could be salvaged and brought back has been ââ¬â including trucks and Humvees with bullet holes and bomb damage.
"The stuff we brought back from Iraq, we worked it really hard," said Brig. Gen. Jeff Schloesser, assistant division commander for support.
Rebuilding equipment, however, is a more straightforward matter than determining how best to train troops to survive in Iraq, or wherever the next fight may be.
The 101st, like most Army divisions, is trained to excel in a very specific set of skills ââ¬â in this case, launching assaults from helicopters and landing an infantry force in a hostile environment.
"Let me put it this way," Linnington said, "we weren't doing much air assault in Iraq."
During the day, its soldiers were harvesting wheat, organizing city council elections, building schools and acting as a security force. At night, they launched raids on enemies and their weapons caches.
"The skill sets that the soldiers are being asked to train to are different than those required in a situation like Iraq," said Dan Goure, a military analyst with the nonpartisan Lexington Institute, a Virginia-based public policy group.
For now, the 101st is honing its core skills. "Being out there for that long, it was hard to keep skills up," said Lt. Col. Christopher Pease, breathing hard after a wrestling session. "We had guys hiring Iraqis to make them homemade barbells. There are certain things you learn on a deployment. But at a certain point ââ¬Â¦ you're no longer effective."
In addition to training, there are matters to be dealt with at home, as officers and soldiers struggle to patch up their personal lives. For two-thirds of the fighting force, Iraq was their first combat. The average age of the soldiers was 21.
It's hard to find a returning soldier who doesn't jump at loud noises or have trouble sleeping. Memories of battle deaths are vivid, and divorce is rampant.
"Some guys I talk to, they wish they'd never come home," said Sgt. Albert Blair, 32; he and his wife have been in marriage counseling.
"We're having communication problems," he said. "She wants to know it all. 'Did you shoot anyone? Did you see anyone die?' I don't want to talk about that stuff. I want to act like it didn't exist."
The Army is doing what it can to help, offering soldiers classes in everything from how to drive safely ââ¬â most have not been behind the wheel of a car for a year ââ¬â to how to reconnect with their children. Before the soldiers left Iraq, they filled out forms that asked, among other things, "Are you currently having thoughts of (circle all that apply) suicide, death or harming others?"
Commanders are sending their soldiers home early and awarding days off with regularity. Battalion leaders are giving ample notice if troops will be asked to train or work at night. Dances and other social events are planned for soldiers and their families.
For one 22-year-old from Ohio who got married three months before he left for Iraq, a family barely formed has come apart. Spc. Tony Wickline's wife gave birth to their baby girl, Harley, while he was away. The couple split up when Wickline got back. She took Harley with her to Ohio.
"I got to play with her a little, just a little. I didn't get to see her born," Wickline said, tears in his eyes. "Now she's gone."
There are career and financial issues too. Over beers bought by Linnington at the base's golf clubhouse, dozens of senior officers talked about what going back to Iraq might mean for their careers ââ¬â whether one will be able to complete the fellowship he was planning, whether another will be able to go to air assault school when he wants.
Some soldiers are flush with the combat pay they got in Iraq. New trucks are everywhere around Ft. Campbell. So are motorcycles ââ¬â many bought online before the troops got home.
Others, however, have gone through the money or are in debt because they were unable to manage their finances or pay bills while they were away.
Wickline totaled his truck ââ¬â an old one ââ¬â a week after he got back. With his marriage at an end, he moved into the barracks. Since February, he said, he has lost 50 pounds. Like the soldiers around him, he gets up at 6:30 every morning to work out and begin his days of training himself and refurbishing his gear.
He is resigned to going back to Iraq.
"I joined [the Army] because I wanted to make sure I could make a future for a family I hoped to have, which I got, and then I lost," he said.
And even if he won't get to raise his daughter, Wickline said, "At least my little girl will grow up knowing Daddy was a part of history."
Copyright 2003 Los Angeles Times
Rumsfeld and company want another $25 billion obstensibly to redress the problems noted above. However, they want the money placed in an account where they can use it for other purposes if needed. That reeks of the same stench as the $700 million they diverted from Afghanistan to base upgrades in Qatar and other areas around Iraq. Some in Congress for once seems to be showing some backbone on this by insisting that the money be used to address the problems above. I'd love to see a report that details equipment losses. They probably a secret classification on that, but I can't help but to think that one hell of a lot of wheeled vehicles have been either destroyed or badly damaged.
The men above are poorly served by the so-called leaders we have today.
2004-05-21 00:08 | User Profile
I'm voting Kerry in 2004 just to get Bush out of there. Anyone going to join me? The momentum is there, and the election is already going down as a referendum on Bush. If Bush wins, the press will say he's vindicated(we can't afford that, and with Jeb waiting for his turn at the table). I am seriously not sure the US can survive another 4 years of Bush/Cheney.
2004-05-21 00:16 | User Profile
[QUOTE=All Old Right]I'm voting Kerry in 2004 just to get Bush out of there. Anyone going to join me? The momentum is there, and the election is already going down as a referendum on Bush. If Bush wins, the press will say he's vindicated(we can't afford that, and with Jeb waiting for his turn at the table). I am seriously not sure the US can survive another 4 years of Bush/Cheney.[/QUOTE]
I'm voting Bush.
More gas on the fire is what we need at this point.
2004-05-21 00:40 | User Profile
[QUOTE=Valley Forge]I'm voting Bush.
More gas on the fire is what we need at this point.[/QUOTE] I see that as a defeatist attitude that I can't subscribe to.
2004-05-21 00:41 | User Profile
[QUOTE=All Old Right]I see that as a defeatist attitude that I can't subscribe to.[/QUOTE]
I suppose it's something reasonable people can disagree over.
2004-05-21 02:47 | User Profile
I'll let others hasten doomsday. Personally, I am a builder and political tactician, not prone to ripping apart an undamaged foundation just to be able to brag to children about starting from scratch, and being a "founder" of a country.
2004-05-30 14:58 | User Profile
DefenseWatch "The Voice of the Grunt"
[color=red]01-05-2004[/color]
Hack's Target
An Army Short of Ammo
By David H. Hackworth
ââ¬ÅBang, bang. You're dead.ââ¬Â
Neighborhood kids playing soldier in an empty lot with wooden rifles?
Nope! Regular United States warriors, during Exercise Crocodile ââ¬Ë03 at Shoalwater Bay, Australia, ââ¬Åfightingââ¬Â an Aussie reserve unit.
ââ¬ÅWe were loaded down with far more blank ammunition than we could fit in our ammunition pouches, but when we made ââ¬Ëcontactââ¬â¢ with the Yanks, we found that many of them had almost no blank training rounds,ââ¬Â Aussie Pvt. Simon Parmiter said.
ââ¬ÅOn several occasions when we opened fire we received perhaps half a dozen shots in return before the riflemen started yelling, ââ¬ËBang, bangââ¬â¢ back at us, while the SAW ââ¬â Squad Automatic Weapon ââ¬â gunners shouted, ââ¬ËBullets, bullets, bulletsââ¬â¢,ââ¬Â Parmiter continued.
ââ¬ÅIt was incredible ââ¬â the best-equipped military in the world was reduced to yelling at us instead of firing.ââ¬Â
ââ¬ÅWith the recent news that that unit will return to Iraq, I assume many of the chaps yelling, ââ¬ËBullets, bullets, bullets ... ââ¬â¢ will soon find themselves in the real thing ââ¬â hopefully with more realistic training behind them, but if the shortage of live ammunition is as bad as the shortage of blank ammo appears to be, one has to wonder.ââ¬Â
Spoken with the wisdom of an Australian Digger, aka a mud grunt.
This report and similar accounts of ammo shortages during the past few months have caused me to check into this story with great urgency. Because soldiers fight as they train ââ¬â which, by the way, is the U.S. Armyââ¬â¢s most heavily exercised mantra ââ¬â an Army without sufficient training ammo is an Army that will fail on the battlefield.
I posted a ââ¬Åhelp wantedââ¬Â ad on my Hackworth.com web page, and within 24 hours had received more than 500 messages from serving Army troops in the United States preparing for deployment to hot battlefields like Iraq or Afghanistan, as well as from warriors all over the world, confirming that our soldiers donââ¬â¢t have sufficient stocks of live or blank training ammo to prepare adequately for combat.
Although Pentagon spokesman Maj. Gary Tallman was most cooperative, it took him several weeks to line up the experts. When asked why, he said, ââ¬ÅSome folks here are busy playing ââ¬Ëpass the grenade.ââ¬â¢ ââ¬Â
For sure, the ammo-shortage problem is a live grenade. But eventually I did speak with Brig. Gen. Louis Weber and Lt. Col. Susan Carlson.
Weber, recently back from Iraq ââ¬â where he served with the spearhead unit that took Baghdad ââ¬â insisted that the ââ¬ÅArmy has adequate ammo for training and deployed units.ââ¬Â But he did admit that there was a lot of ground truth in the reports Iââ¬â¢d received from the troops.
Gen. Weber explained that the Army ammo inventory includes 350 different lines of munitions, and that fragmentation grenades and blank training ammo are a problem, along with 23 other lines of ammo. When I asked for a list of the shortages, the Pentagon declined to provide it in the interests of ââ¬Åoperational security.ââ¬Â
Tallman assured me that small-arms-training ammunition is now the No. 1 single line item for procurement dollars for the 2004 budget. ââ¬ÅThe Army will spend just over $1 billion, ahead of Stryker, upgrades for Apache, Abrams, CH-47, MLRS, procurement of communications systems and procurement of medium and heavy tactical vehicles,ââ¬Â he said.
West Point-trained Lt. Col. Carlson ââ¬â coincidentally the daughter of retired Col. Jerry Carlson, who served with great distinction alongside of me in Korea and Vietnam ââ¬â said that our Lake City ammo plant in Missouri ââ¬Åhas gone to three shifts.ââ¬Â
Sources say that Lake City ââ¬â both the largest Army ammo facility in the world and the producer of all the Pentagonââ¬â¢s small-arms ammo ââ¬â has reached ââ¬Åcapacityââ¬Â and ââ¬Åunits in the field still don't have the right stuff to do the job.ââ¬Â
A regular Army major just back from Iraq says: ââ¬ÅPresident Bush told the armed forces, ââ¬ËHelp is on the way.ââ¬â¢ But in Iraq and now in the training business, Iââ¬â¢ve seen very little help, but a whole lot of pork.ââ¬Â
Youââ¬â¢d think that our Congress would have the good sense to read the coffee grains and demand that we reopen other ammo plants to prepare for a long, dangerous and most critical global war in which our very way of life is at stake.
The address of David Hackworth's home page is Hackworth.com. Sign in for the free weekly Defending America column at his Web site. Send mail to P.O. Box 11179, Greenwich, CT 06831. His newest book is ââ¬ÅSteel My Soldiersââ¬â¢ Hearts.ââ¬Â
é 2004 David H. Hackworth.
[url=http://www.sftt.org/cgi-bin/csNews/csNews.cgi?database=Hacks%20Target.db&command=viewone&op=t&id=51&rnd=710.9475877219867]http://www.sftt.org/cgi-bin/csNews/csNews.cgi?database=Hacks%20Target.db&command=viewone&op=t&id=51&rnd=710.9475877219867[/url]
Amazing. This column is six months old and here it is that only in the last two weeks is the media writing about this. So much for that "liberal media" trying to bring down Greatest Administration since the Administration of Wm. Jefferson Clinton.
Lake City is now expanding its production, but even with three shifts working we will still be short. Kudos to the Bush Administration for their brilliant planning for the "war on Terror."
2004-05-31 00:42 | User Profile
What is Hackworth thinking? (sarcasm) There's no way Bush and Cheney can fill Haliburton coffers with billions of US tax $$, nation build and police the entire globe, subsidize Israel and Egypt and a dozen other countries with tens of billions of US tax $$, expand the US federal machine to historic levels, and still have funds to make sure our troops have what they need. Sheesh, political campaigns, personal wealth and influence, and politics come before the well being of the US citizens or the military, the Col. should know that by now. (more sarcasm)
2004-05-31 04:04 | User Profile
What a mess [QUOTE]There are so many helicopters in need of work that the Army has parceled out the effort among several bases, supply depots and civilian contractors. Chief among the tasks is replacing fiberglass blades that Army aviation mechanics had been protecting from the abrasive Iraqi sand by covering them with duct tape. [/QUOTE]
2004-05-31 04:13 | User Profile
Faust,
Yes, that sounds like the crap that occurred during the Carter or Clinton Administration. The Bush Administration is really putting out for the troops. What trip!
2004-05-31 04:17 | User Profile
Meanwhile, in the White House.....
Report: Bush keeps Saddam's gun at White House Sunday, May 30, 2004 Posted: 1:25 PM EDT (1725 GMT)
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -- A handgun that Saddam Hussein was clutching when U.S. forces captured him in a hole in Iraq last December is now kept by President Bush at the White House, Time magazine reported Sunday.
Military officials had the pistol mounted after it was seized from Saddam near his hometown of Tikrit last year, and soldiers involved in the capture gave it to Bush in a private meeting, Time said.
The magazine quoted a visitor who had been shown the gun, which is kept in a small study off the Oval Office where Bush displays memorabilia. It is the same room where former President Clinton had some of his encounters with former intern Monica Lewinsky.
Bush shows Saddam's gun to select visitors, telling them it is unloaded, both now and when Saddam was captured, Time reported.
"He really liked showing it off," Time quoted a visitor who had seen the gun as saying. "He was really proud of it."
A White House spokesman was not immediately available for comment.
Copyright 2004 Reuters. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
[url=http://www.cnn.com/2004/US/05/30/saddam.gun.reut/index.html]http://www.cnn.com/2004/US/05/30/saddam.gun.reut/index.html[/url]
2004-05-31 04:24 | User Profile
Sertorius,
He never been in harms way and has fun playing with his new gun someonelse took from Saddam. Hell Saddam was a monster, but he was more of a man than Bushie.
2004-05-31 17:04 | User Profile
Faust,
Here's something else to think about as well. That firearm belongs in either the Infantry Museum at Ft. Benning or the Special Forces at Ft. Bragg, not in the Clinton Memorial Pantry. I'm not exactly sure of the unit type that made the grab. I don't think that Bush can keep the weapon legally.
2004-06-26 00:38 | User Profile
Jun 24, 5:56 PM (ET)
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Israeli-made bullets bought by the U.S. Army to plug a shortfall should be used for training only, not to fight Muslim guerrillas in Iraq and Afghanistan, U.S. lawmakers told Army generals on Thursday. Since the Army has other stockpiled ammunition, "by no means, under any circumstances should a round (from Israel) be utilized," said Rep. Neil Abercrombie of Hawaii, the top Democrat on a House of Representatives Armed Services subcommittee with jurisdiction over land forces.
The Army contracted with Israel Military Industries Ltd. in December for $70 million in small-caliber ammunition.
The Israeli firm was one of only two worldwide that could meet U.S. technical specifications and delivery needs, said Brig. Gen. Paul Izzo, the Army's program executive officer for ammunition. The other was East Alton, Illinois-based Winchester Ammunition, which also received a $70 million contract.
Although the Army should not have to worry about "political correctness," Abercrombie was making a valid point about the propaganda pitfalls of using Israeli rounds in the U.S.-declared war on terror, said Rep. Curt Weldon, the Pennsylvania Republican who chairs the subcommittee on tactical air and land forces.
"There's a sensitivity that I think all of us recognize," Weldon told the Army witnesses, including Maj. Gen. Buford Blount, who led the U.S. Third Infantry Division that captured Baghdad in April 2003.
Blount, now the Army's assistant deputy chief of staff, said the Army had sufficient small caliber ammunition -- 5.56mm, 7.62mm and .50 caliber -- to conduct current operations in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere.
But taken together with training needs, the United States had strained its production facilities, he testified.
"To fight a major combat operation in another theater will require the Army to impose restrictions on training expenditures and to focus current inventory and new production on combat operations," Blount said.
As a result, he said the Army hoped to stretch U.S. supplies to supplement the capacity of the government-owned Lake City plant in Independence, Missouri, that currently makes more than 90 percent of U.S. small caliber ammunition.
The Lake City factory, operated by Alliant Techsystems Inc., has nearly quadrupled its production in the past four years. This year, it will produce more than 1.2 billion rounds, Karen Davies, president of the ATK arm that runs it, told the panel. Lake City provided more than 2 billion rounds a year during World War II and Vietnam, she said.
The Army's needs will grow to about 1.5 billion to 1.7 billion rounds a year in coming years, Blount said.
"In the near-term, balancing training requirements with current operational needs is a manageable risk-mitigation strategy," he said.
The Army does not want to repeat its history of building capacity during wartime "only to dismantle it in peacetime," Blount added.
[url=http://news.myway.com/top/article/id/411289|top|06-24-2004::18:06|reuters.html]http://news.myway.com/top/article/id/411289|top|06-24-2004::18:06|reuters.html[/url]
Google sponsored links
Pongo - Israeli T-Shirts - Your Online Shop for Israeli & Army T-Shirts, Sweatshirts & Souvenirs. [url=http://www.Pongo.co.il]http://www.Pongo.co.il[/url]
é 2002-2004 My Way