We already know U.S. troops were sent into battle in Iraq without vehicle armor, body armor, and combat helmets. We also know that troops have been frustrated by the Pentagon’s unresponsiveness to requests for needed tanks, Bradleys, and other heavy vehicles.
But is it really possible that the troops don’t have the bullets they need?
Even in the age of unmanned aerial vehicles, satellite-guided bombs and night-vision goggles, the US army cannot fight a war without its most basic necessity: bullets.
And with more troops in Iraq, more intense combat than expected and the need for almost every soldier from frontline infantryman to rearguard logistician to be prepared for an ambush, the army suddenly finds itself in a bullet crunch.
According to a requisition last week by the Army Field Support Command, the service will need 300m to 500m more bullets a year for at least five years, or more than 1.5m a year for combat and training. And because the single army-owned, small-caliber ammunition factory in Lake City, Missouri, can produce only 1.2m bullets annually, the army is suddenly scrambling to get private defense contractors to help fill the gap.
The bullet problem has its roots in a Pentagon effort to restock its depleted war materiel reserve. But it has been exacerbated by the ongoing operations in Afghanistan and Iraq, where rearguard and supply units have been thinly-stretched throughout the countryside, occasionally without active duty combat soldiers to protect them.
Apparently, this hasn’t reached a crisis, but there’s plenty of concern.
“There’s no question that on many of the items that are being consumed rapidly in Iraq, like tank treads, like body armor, like small-caliber ammunition, the Army is beginning to run out, and the Army is becoming worried about its stockpile,” said Loren Thompson, a defense analyst with the Lexington Institute.
Gen. Paul Kern, the Army’s chief logistician, is in charge of the worrying. He said tread usage is 5 to 10 times as high as in peacetime. Small-caliber bullet usage has more than doubled since 2001. Finding enough batteries for things like night- vision gear and radios has been tough.
“It’s been manageable, but it gets exciting,” Kern said of keeping the Army supplied.
Given the circumstances, it seems we’d probably want to avoid this kind of “excitement.”