1.5 billion more rounds of ammo?

Question

what are they doing with all this stuff? The weapons depots that sadaam left behind had tons of stuff, now they are using up every bullet in america too? Their aim cant be that bad can it? Even if they are like new york cops and put 44 shots into each unarmed civilian cornered in a hallway, that would still mean the entire population of iraq has been killed or wounded at least once.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070521/ap_on_bi_ge/ammunition_supply

7.62 is a standard round, i think ak-47's use it. As for using full automatic in a fire fight, well, that seems like what some punk on the street doing a drive by might do, not a highly trained unit of soldiers who know that if they so much as scratch a civilian there will be heck to pay with the media.

warning shots? those are for cops, and if that is what the most powerful army in the world has been reduced to, its time for them to come home before they become as useless as the isreaeli army has become

Answer 1

For annual rifle qualifications in just the Marine Corps would be about 40 million rounds of 5.56 alone. ( approx 200Rd's per Marine multiplied by approx 200,000 Marines) Now add to that the annual training requirements of the army, navy, coast guard and air force and the sum will become quite large just for training. Let's not forget to add in the crew served weapons training (7.62 mm and .50 caliber) as well as any other ammunition for pistols and shotguns (9mm and .45 caliber, 12 ga,etc) and we can see that just training requirements are enormous. Now we can add in any munitions needed for conflict areas and the amounts needed to replenish the reserve stores (we used a large amount initially because the manufacturing capability needed time to ramp up) and we can soon realize that 1.5 billion is not really that much.

Answer 2

THEY DO PRACTICE WITH LIVE ROUNDS. THEY ARE FIGHTING IN TWO COUNTRIES. THEIR ARE FIREFIGHTS DAILY. I'M SURE SOME OF THE AMMO IS SOLD TO OTHER COUNTRIES. WHEN IN A BATTLE OR FIREFIGHT YOU DON'T COUNT THE NUMBER OF ROUNDS FIRED. IT MAY TAKE 3000 BULLETS TO GET A PERSON OUT OF AN ENTRENCHMENT. WHEN THE COMPANY FIRES EVERYONE FIRES SOMETIMES YOU DON'T EVEN KNOW WHAT OR WHO YOU SHOOTING AT. YOU JUST KNOW THAT AS LONG AS YOUR SHOOTING THE OTHER GUY HAS TO KEEP HIS HEAD DOWN. M16 rifle was designed to give the infantryman fire superiority over the enemy by providing rapid fire power. Its maximum rate of fire was 650-700 rounds per minute. Of course, changing magazines every nineteen rounds, we never reached that speed. But a single magazine still emptied quickly on full automatic. To sustain fire superiority, the men in a squad took turns firing and reloading. That way we kept a steady stream of lead raining down on our opponents. SIDE ARMS ARE ALSO CARRIED AND FIRED.

Answer 3

rounds are used for training. weapons qualification and familiarization and rounds for fighting. there are about what 140,000 soldiers over in Iraq lets say each soldiers has 10 magazines of 30 rounds thats thats 300 rounds per soldier and 42,000,000 rounds issued out that the soldiers carry over there. then the saw gunner carries at least 600 to 800 rounds on him. then there has to be a stock pile in of ammo to re-supply once they use rounds. so thats a good round even number of 1.5 billion rounds needed. If I were to order I would have made it a even number of 2billion
suro

Answer 4

7.62 hasn't been a standard round for at least twenty years. granted we use them for M240B and M240G and a few others but 5.56 has far more utilized for years now.

Not to mention taht their are these pesky international laws that sop us from using anything seized in the war for our own gain.

We wouldnt want people thinking we invaded Iraq for bullets now would we.

Answer 5

If any of you have weapons in military calibers, I think you better stock up now to ensure you have an adequate supply. This war is showing that supplies are running low. And to the answerer, a lot of ammunition is used to train soldiers and that includes the fledgling Iraqi army who probably have never been taught to shoot properly.

Answer 6

It's not the war that is shorting the cops of more ammo. It's the civilian population that is loading up in case these two idiots Bloomberg and Daley happen to make some headway with gun control.

Do you realize there is almost one gun on the street for every man, woman, and child in the US. That's a lot of fire power to eliminate. Two guys as old as Bloomberg and Daley better get goin if they expect to make a dent in that number, especially since their life expectancy is less than ten year !

Answer 7

The weapons and ammo are being used to arm and train Iraqi's allies of ours. Kinda difficult to fight a war with out guns and ammo. In a gun battle you would be surprised how fast you go through ammunition.

Answer 8

Two words...Suppressive fire...Oh and those pesky warning shots. If we just did away with warning shots our ammo consumption would go down. Would you prefer that?

Answer 9

Saddams bullets don't fit our guns.

Send the bullets.

Answer 10

Ya can't kill people without bullets