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60,000 artillery shells would be surprising, but 60k rounds of rifle or pistol ammunition is not much. That is one pallet, at a cost of maybe $20,000 at bulk r
by steve19 6y ago
60,000 artillery shells would be surprising, but 60k rounds of rifle or pistol ammunition is not much.
That is one pallet, at a cost of maybe $20,000 at bulk retail in the USA.
- bpodgursky 6y agoYeah I mean, missing material sucks and shouldn't be routine, but this is pretty trivial bullet count compared to what any military runs through in marksmanship training on a daily basis. Seems far more likely that one pallet is moulding in a corner of a warehouse somewhere (or accidentally got thrown away) than that a right-wing paramilitary group is stealing bullets from the German military, that they simply can't find anywhere else.
- charlchi 6y ago> 60,000 rounds of rifle or pistol ammunition is not much. Military equiment being lost is a regular occurrence?
- adventured 6y agoGermany spends half a trillion dollars per decade on its military. It would not be surprising if $20k of ammo vanishes for any number of reasons (theft, misplaced, miscounted).
- steve19 6y agoLost could just mean expended in training but with slightly poor recording keeping that added up over time.
- HarryHirsch 6y agoAnyone who has served in the Armed Forces knows how strict range security is. This couldn't be the case.
- grensley 6y agoMakes you wonder how much ammo the US is currently missing...
- giancarlostoro 6y agoProbably less relevant since most citizens can buy plenty of ammo for themselves.
- kevin_thibedeau 6y agoCrates of grenades "lost" during training would be more of a concern.
- agensaequivocum 6y agoYou can legally buy grenades as a civilian, not as easily as ammo but still possible.
- angrais 6y agoSorry if this is a dumb question, but given you can literally buy grenades ... Can they be posted and delivered to someone else? I ask as both sound ridiculous on my mind
- giancarlostoro 6y agoI imagine its similar to buying a firearm. You need an FFL to receive it and they background you same as they would a gun. However the FFL needs a special license for grenades as well. Edit for those who dont know: You can order guns online but they must be shipped to a qualified FFL. They must keep records of having done a background check and all that (same as buying in person). As an FFL you could be audited at any moment so you dont wanna screw around or the ATF might come down on you hard. Honestly the last agency I want coming to arrest me is ATF looking at their history of shooting peoples dogs. Its like they think they are above all other agencies and do whatever to arrest people.
- hdjrkrmfkt 6y agoUS army fired on average 250k rounds to kill one enemy combatant in Iraq. https://m.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/world-news/us-forced-to-import-bullets-from-israel-as-troops-use-250000-for-every-rebel-killed-28580666.html https://m.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/world-news/us-forced-t...
- kapnobatairza 6y agoAnother way the movie Starship Troopers would predict the Iraq War.
- tandr 6y agoSorry, I miss the reference. Would you be kind and expand on it a bit?
- tmh79 6y agoI mean, this is specifically accurate but a useless metrics. Its literally bullets/kill. Modern urban warfare tactics include a whole lot of shooting where the intent is not to kill the enemy, but to make the enemy hide and reduce their ability to shoot at you. The army also uses lot of ammo to train and stay competent. Its similar to how most military pilots clock hundreds of hours flying for every hour of combat they experience. Bullets/kill is like an extreme version of "game winning scores"/"all shots ever taken in a game or training" [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suppressive_fire#:~:text=In%20military%20science%2C%20suppressive%20fire,the%20duration%20of%20the%20fire https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suppressive_fire#:~:text=In%20...]
- droopyEyelids 6y agohttps://www.ft.com/content/d5cd9758-80a6-4d30-93d5-2add8709ed0f https://www.ft.com/content/d5cd9758-80a6-4d30-93d5-2add8709e... Here they mention how much of the 'lost' german materiel is diverted by far right cells within their armed forces. "48,000 rounds of ammunition and 62kg of explosives had disappeared from the KSK" in this case. Their most recent political assassination was in 2018, too. https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/07/world/europe/germany-murder-far-right-neo-nazi-luebcke.html https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/07/world/europe/germany-murd...
- dreamcompiler 6y agoExactly. I know people who shoot 2000 rounds in a weekend of target practice. This might be a large amount in a country where guns are rare, but it's nothing in the US.