WASHINGTON, 27 June 2004 — It appears someone in Congress just woke up. Despite the fact that US soldiers are firing so many bullets that the army’s main supplier cannot keep up with supply and demand, some lawmakers have realized the US Army should not use bullets provided by Israel’s state-owned bullet-maker on the ground in Iraq.
“By no means, under any circumstances should a round (from Israel) be utilized,” said Congressman Neil Abercrombie of Hawaii, the top Democrat on a House of Representatives Armed Services subcommittee with jurisdiction over land forces.
It’s perhaps best that Israeli-made bullets bought by the US Army should be used for training only, not to fight guerrillas in Iraq and Afghanistan, US lawmakers told Army generals on Thursday.
Brig. Gen. Paul Izzo, the Army’s program executive officer for ammunition, said the Israeli firm was one of only two worldwide that could meet US technical specifications and delivery needs, The other was East Alton, Illinois-based Winchester Ammunition, which also received a $70 million contract.
Although the Army should not have to worry about “political correctness,” Abercrombie made a valid point about the propaganda pitfalls of using Israeli rounds in the US-declared war on terror, said Rep. Curt Weldon, the Pennsylvania Republican who chairs the subcommittee on tactical air and land forces.
“There’s a sensitivity that I think all of us recognize,” Weldon told the Army witnesses, including Maj. Gen. Buford Blount, who led the US Third Infantry Division that captured Baghdad in April 2003.
Blount, now the Army’s assistant deputy chief of staff, said the Army had sufficient small caliber ammunition — 5.56mm, 7.62mm and .50 caliber — to conduct current operations in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere. But taken together with training needs, the United States has strained its production facilities, he testified.
The US military says that with almost daily firefights in Iraq and ongoing operations in Afghanistan and elsewhere — the demand is higher than at any time since the war in Vietnam — and says it now needs two billion bullets a year, but its government-owned supplier, Alliant Techsystems, can only make 1.2 billion.
“We’re at war,” was how US Army spokesman Maj. Gary Tallman explained the reason for the dramatic increase in the demand for small-caliber ammunition to the media, adding that US non-combatant troops in Iraq are also using more bullets in training.
To meet the shortage, the Army said it contracted Winchester Ammunition of East Alton, Illinois, and Israel Military Industries Ltd. to start delivering millions of rounds.
