''Dream' in the US Department of Defense: Destroying weapons worth $1.2 billion

April 29, 2014   

A government report published last night by the Pentagon reveals: Due to a lack of coordination between military systems, some of the weapons that will be destroyed as "unusable weapons" are actually usable weapons. There is no way to estimate the value of the usable weapons that will be destroyed, and congressional sources claim that it is likely worth close to a billion dollars. "An opportunity to save millions, if not billions, would not be lost if the Pentagon had improved its weapons management system," says Senator Tom Carper, chairman of the Committee on Homeland Security and Government Affairs. "Despite years of effort, the military still does not have an effective and basic process such as a system for sharing surplus ammunition. This report shows that our Department of Defense's outdated systems are certainly causing millions to be wasted on purchasing unnecessary ammunition." The Pentagon and the Army responded in a statement, saying that they admit that the system requires improvement and that they are doing everything in their power to do so. The direct impact of the findings on the ground was not examined in the report, but a senior officer said, without attribution, that during the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, there were shortages of machine gun bullets and 9mm bullets. Among the serious findings emerging from the report, signed by US Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel, is that only the Army has begun using the Pentagon's weapons management system, while the Navy and Air Force continue to use their old system. It also appears that the Army reported for the first time a month ago on the number of missiles it possesses, even though it was previously required by regulation. Without the Army's cooperation, other military services may have needed to use the missiles and purchased them, even though the Army possesses large stockpiles. The Army announced in its statement that it began providing this information to the other services last month. About a month ago, it was announced that President Obama intends to reduce the US security forces' budget for the purchase of Hellfire and Tomahawk missiles to $128 million, and that in 2015-16 he intends to completely ban their purchase. The move angered many senators, claiming that it was an important part of the United States' offensive capability, and that the system that would replace the Tomahawk missiles would only become operational in a decade.