SMALL CALIBER AMMO ON RAMP
INDUSTRY IS STEPPING UP TO HELP U.S. MILITARY MEET AMMUNITION NEEDS
While much attention has been paid to the Iraq war’s toll on the U.S. military’s equipment infrastructure, little has been paid to the Army’s impressive ability to meet munitions demands, particularly small caliber bullet needs since first ramping up operations in Afghanistan after the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.
According to the Army’s Joint Munitions Command at the Rock Island Arsenal in Illinois, Army production of small caliber bullets that are used by all the armed forces jumped from 426 million rounds in 2001 to 1.6 billion rounds in 2006.
Steve Abney, chief of public affairs at the JMC, said that the increase was made in response to war demands and includes all the small munitions training needs for every unit heading into combat. “We are producing all we need,” said Abney. “Every soldier has all the ammo they need to do training and fight as we are years into this now.”
The U.S. government spent $688 million on ammunition last year, up from $242 million in 2001 with smaller 5.56 mm, 7.62 mm and .50 caliber bullets in highest demand. The three calibers of small-arms ammunition can be fired by individual soldier’s weapons or from weapons mounted on the Abrams Tank, Bradley Fighting Vehicle and the HMMWV (High-Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicle.
ATK
The vast majority of the U.S. military’s small caliber ammunition needs are met with an Army-owned plant in Lake City, Mo., managed by Edina, Minn.- based Alliant Techsystems Inc. (ATK), the largest ammunition manufacturer in the world. The plant’s production has increased nearly fourfold since 2001 as new workers were hired and production capabilities were improved to meet increased military demand.
ATK spokesman Brian Grace said that when the company took over production at the Lake City facility production capacity was in the neighborhood of around 600 million small caliber rounds but that improvements and efficiencies markedly increased capabilities. The facility has gone from having 650 employees to about 2,500 currently and works under a contract that basically has the facility producing as much ammunition as the Army demands and it can provide.
“At this point we have built capacity up to about 1.5 million rounds a year and are running pretty close to capacity,” said Grace. “We worked with the Army and partner with Congress to get modernization funds to get efficiency up by improving the technology to improve capacity. Overall it has been a pretty smooth process.” The plant dates to 1942, when then Senator Harry Truman backed its construction in his home town of Independence, Mo., and remains the only continuously operated military small caliber production facility in the nation. With much of the equipment in the facility dating to the 1970s, Grace said the company completely rebuilt key pieces of equipment using modern controls. He also noted that besides the needs of a wartime military, part of the increase in production in recent years was the result of the Army changing its training doctrine in recent years to so that every soldier, even those not on involved in direct combat, receives small arms training. This resulted in a run on the stockpile of small caliber munitions. “About 80 percent of our output is used for training,” said Grace. “At this point a good bit of (production) output is for replenishing stockpiles.”
Bob Kowalski, the deputy product manager for small and medium caliber ammunition in the Program Executive Office for Ammunition at the Army’s Picatinny Arsenal in New Jersey, agreed that about 80 percent of government small munitions demand goes to training. “Most of it goes to training because that is where it is needed most, but a portion goes to war reserves because we did use war reserves stock early in the war while were we were ramping up,” said Kowalski.
Kowalski’s group helps oversee production of small caliber ammunition for not only the Army but for all the other U.S. military services as well. They are also supported by an engineering entity at the arsenal but much of their focus is on product testing and verifying the manufacturer has met all the performance characteristics for the ammunition. “Our number one priority is production to meet the war fighter’s needs,” said Grace, who added that around 80 percent of expenditures on the small caliber munitions are spent on 5.56 mm ammunition for the rifles used by soldiers in combat.
SECOND SOURCE AMMO CONTRACTOR
Besides ATK, Falls Church, Va.-based General Dynamics is the second source contractor for the Army’s small caliber munitions needs. General Dynamics declined to comment for this story, but Kowalski said the company teams up with a number of producers in the United States and outside the Unites States to delivery Army requirements of up to 300 million and they have a provision in their contract that allows them to ramp up to 500 million rounds as well if the Army so demands. One of the other firms involved in Army munitions needs on the smaller end of the supply scale is East Alton, Ill.- based Winchester Ammunition.
Kowalski said that private sector partners like ATK bring management experience and day-to-day business know-how to the Army’s own facilities. In the case of General Dynamics, Kowalski said that company brings logistics expertise and import/export know-how to the table to ensure that it secondary sources of ammunition can be brought to the United States or bases around the world to fulfill stockpiling and other needs.
While there is currently a need for secondary sourcing to ensure wartime demand is met, Kowalski said that the latest $240 million upgrade to the Army’s Lake City plant that is scheduled to be completed by the end of the year should ensure that the facility can meet the bulk of the Army’s small caliber munitions needs for the next 30 years.
He added that between both contracts, the Army is meeting the small caliber munitions needs of all the Armed forces for the foreseeable future “We are meeting all the ammunition needs that come to us,” said Kowalski. “We have not had to turn away any requests to produce ammunition.”
ATK’s Grace said that the Lake City facility’s output should remain fairly constant over the next couple of years since training needs are unlikely to diminish very much as the Iraq conflict winds down. “Beyond that it is hard to say,” he said.
FUTURE AMMO PRODUCTION NEEDS
Kowalski said that production is sure to be reduced somewhat in the future depending upon budget pressures but that the Army is trying to find a middle ground between the steep drops typically seen after wars end and the need for stockpiles to be kept up. “We don’t expect to be at this peak very long, maybe for a couple of years,” he said. “Hopefully we can do so (decrease production) in a way that doesn’t cause hardship in the industrial base. Ammunition is usually, historically, very cyclical. Usually it very quickly ramps up as wars begin and very quickly ramps down.”
As to reports that the military’s increased demand for munitions has resulted in shortages in ammunition for police and sporting needs, Grace said that connection between the Iraq war and civilian munitions shortages has been overblown for ATK. Besides the Lake City plant, he noted that ATK operates two other domestic facilities that produce civilian ammunition directed toward the sporting use and law enforcement. Those two facilities are providing 30 percent more small caliber ammo to law enforcement than a year ago. ♦