Ya can't make this up - Pentagon to destroy $1B+ in ammunition

[devil21]

Sell it to the public at a steep discount? Ha yeah right. Just destroy it then ask for more budget money to keep better track of ammo in the future. :rolleyes:

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2014/04/27/pentagon-ammunition-sen-tom-carper-gao-waste/8145729/

(my conspiracy side thinks it won't be destroyed, just "disappeared" for accounting purposes. The article is mostly about missiles, not bullets....)

[Mani]

The article didn't explain why the stuff needs to be destroyed. Does it have a shelf life?

[Ronin Truth]

It never gets fixed because the current "system" (so called) makes some folks rich.

[Mani]

It never gets fixed because the current "system" (so called) makes some folks rich.


There's not enough war going on, so they need to start destroying ammo to keep the MIC going. That darned Syria thing didn't go as planned. I'm sure the US is actively looking for more bad guys. Gotta keep those ammo orders up.

[HOLLYWOOD]

Hold On... Ukraine door may be opening up for U.S. armaments.

Military Industrial Complex... "The Trillion dollar a year jobs program!"

[donnay]

Hold On... Ukraine door may be opening up for U.S. armaments.

Military Industrial Complex... "The Trillion dollar a year jobs program!"


Yep lots of black bag money that they do not have to account for.

[Brian4Liberty]

The article is one big excuse. Sounds like a sales pitch to spend money on the military IT systems. Sorry, computer systems that don't talk to each other is no excuse for destruction of ammunition or any assets.

[devil21]

The article was changed sometime after I posted it. The majority of it was about missiles. Most of the missile portion has been removed.

[Anti Federalist]

The article was changed sometime after I posted it. The majority of it was about missiles. Most of the missile portion has been removed.

Memory holed...that's why I make it point to post most of article if it is of critical importance, RightHaven be damned.

Too much shit being "Winston-ed" these days to trust it will be there later when you need it.

[KCIndy]

Memory holed...that's why I make it point to post most of article if it is of critical importance, RightHaven be damned.

Too much shit being "Winston-ed" these days to trust it will be there later when you need it.


Double-Plus UNGOOD!

[KCIndy]

It's impossible to know what portion of the arsenal slated for destruction — valued at $1.2 billion by the Pentagon — remains viable because the Defense Department's inventory systems can't share data effectively, according to a Government Accountability Office report obtained by USA TODAY.

The result: potential waste of unknown value.


I can certainly vouch for the "can't share data effectively" part.

Some years back, my wife and I drove for a company which hauled Department of Defense goods. (GAWD how I'm glad I don't have that job anymore!) Once, we loaded a single pallet containing exactly two - count 'em, two - cases of double-ought 12 gauge shotgun shells onto the back of a 53 foot semi trailer. That was it. That was the entire load.

We then proceeded to drive the shotgun shells from South Carolina to Colorado, where the ammo was offloaded and... stored. :rolleyes:

Total cost of this expedition? A bit over six thousand dollars.

Six grand for a couple of cases of plain old 00 12 gauge shells. I felt sick. I remarked to my wife that the guys in Colorado could have gone to their local Walmart and bought the same amount of shells for six hundred. (That was back in the good old days when ammo was plentiful.)

And that was just one of many, many many MANY frivolous loads that cost the taxpaying public thousands or even tens of thousands of dollars per round.

Yep. I'm glad that's not where I work anymore. :D