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Ammo shortage is worldwide?
from strategypage.com
The Great Global Ammo Shortage
March 6, 2009: While the United States is a major supplier of weapons to Israel (nearly half a billion dollars worth a year), there are many other nations that also supply weapons and ammunition to Israel.
Most of these other nations supply small quantities, worth less than $10 million a year. During the last five years, a major supplier, among these minor players, was Serbia, which shipped up to $8.6 million worth of ammunition, mostly 5.56mm, one year. This was needed to rebuild Israeli stocks. That's because five years ago, after the U.S. invaded Iraq, American troops suddenly needed much larger quantities of small arms ammo.
Early on, the U.S. Army had a lot of trouble getting enough 5.56mm ammunition for combat operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as increased training with weapons for troops headed there. More ominous was the need to maintain a "war reserve" of billions of bullets for wars that have not broken out.
The one 5.56mm ammo plant the government used (the largest one in the world, in Lake City, Missouri) could produce a maximum of 1.2 billion rounds of 5.6mm ammo a year, and was already operating 24/7.
But the army wanted to have the ability to get 3.2 billion rounds a year for surge situations (like a war.) To get the extra ammo, the army bought from other American and foreign manufacturers. One of the major overseas suppliers was Israel Military Industries Ltd. (for 70 million rounds in 2004 alone). There are over a dozen major manufacturers of 5.56mm ammunition worldwide, and the army had no problem getting what they wanted in short order. But Israel shipped so much 5.56mm ammo that they had to turn to other suppliers to keep their own war reserves topped off.
During World War II, sixteen different companies supplied small arms ammunition for the United States, although in that war, there were eight times as many divisions to be supplied. But the U.S. demand for billions of rounds of 5.56mm ammo after 2003, caused major shifts in the usual patterns of who sold to who, at least for a few years.
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03-06-2009 09:01 PM
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The fact is that the U.S. could not do today what it did in 1942. We no longer have the capability. You can thank Dems for closing military arsenals and ammunition production facilities. We no longer design an build our own weapons either. Most are foreign designs purchased from foreign manufacturers.
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Somethings going on, I checked at least a half dozen major suppliers of bullets for reloading, mainly the Sierra Match King in .22 cal., the one I'm after being the 69 grain for my 1in9 DPMS I bought late last year. Working up a thousand once fire cases I got this week from the Brassman, will take a while so I'm guessing by the time they are done, maybe they will have some in stock, maybe. Checked on primers in town today, High thirties for small rifle primers, not many in stock. Plates and insurance due soon, may be a while before this little project gets done.
OFC
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FWIW, The Wal-Mart I visited yesterday (Pensacola) happened to not only have what I wanted (9mm & 45) under the counter. But also several crates of various rifle/pistol calibers requiring unpacking.
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Copper prices, past five years; go figure!
5 Year Copper Trend
If ammo makers had been stocking up on copper through 2008, on the usually wise assumption that copper would continue to escalate in price, then they got screwed when the price plummeted in 2009 due to the recession.
The same thing also happened to some airlines that purchased futures for jet fuel, to protect themselves from the crazy escalation. Now they are competing against one or two airlines that did not.
It's called Risk. That's what business people have to engage in.
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RED
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RED is right on the commercial end, but the demands of the military, combined with a lack of domestic production is a contributing factor for some calibers. IMI the Israeli arms company has taken up part of the slack for many years. The United States, for reasons mentioned above does not have and will not have in the future the capability to produce the volumn of anything, not just ammunition, it did in World War 2.
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Dan Wilson
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Well Red, stockpiling by individuals is NOT the problem.
One of the wonderful things that Bill Klintoon did was shut down all but ONE ammunition plant and even worse, he sold off ALL of the machinery to make the ammo except for the LC plant.
I have a military Power Point presentation somewhere on my computer that details it all and the ammo shortages and why in my computer, if I can find it I will post it in picture format.
Dan
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Dan, Are those "peace dividends" wonderful? Apparently, no everyone believes that peace is temporary and that conflict is unfortunately the natural state of affairs. Rick
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Dan Wilson
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Well Rick, I guess that's what happens when you let urban children idiots run the show that don't know the first thing about human behaviorism's
Dan
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Thank You to Dan Wilson For This Useful Post: