- FORT BELVOIR, Va. - The U.S.
military's only plant making small-arms ammunition is running at near capacity,
4 million rounds a day, and the United States still is forced to look overseas
and to the recreational industry for ammunition for troops in Afghanistan
and Iraq and those training to deploy there soon.
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- Gen. Paul Kern, commander of the Army Materiel Command,
said Friday that giving those units priority ensured they had enough small-arms
ammunition. "Everyone else will have to pay the price" and wait
for it, he said.
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- The increased demand for ammunition for combat shooting
and intensified training has made deep inroads in the nation's war reserves
of ammunition, Kern said.
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- The sole plant making small-arms ammunition, the Lake
City Army Ammunition Plant in Independence, Mo., is running three eight-hour
shifts a day, six days a week. The plant provides 5.56 mm rifle, 7.62 mm
and .50 caliber machine gun as well as 9 mm pistol cartridges for all branches
of the military.
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- Because of the increased demand for ammunition since
the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks and America's wars in Afghanistan and Iraq,
Kern said the Army in late December let two supplemental contracts to Olin
Winchester of East Alton, Ill., and Israeli Military Industries for each
to produce 70 million rifle rounds per month starting in June.
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- The general said it would probably take until 2005 to
get small-arms ammunition production to a level at which there will be
enough to cover all the increased training needs and begin rebuilding the
war reserves. "We can't just go out and buy our ammunition commercially,"
Kern said. "We maintain very tight quality controls. Our ammo has
to work, at 40 below zero or 140 degrees."
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- He said the Army has put an additional $225 million into
small-arms ammunition production and additional armor for Humvees since
the 9-11 attacks.
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- In addition to combat requirements, two other factors
were driving the increased demand for ammunition: increased live-fire training
for combat-service-support units and the fact that Reserves and National
Guard were shooting as much as the active Army as they trained for deployment
to combat, Kern said.
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