US military’s destruction of $1.2 billion of ammunition is ‘serious infraction’

Despite the existence of simple inventory system software, “it’s astounding that in this day and age they’re not able to keep track of such things,” said Jim Dean, managing editor and columnist at Veterans Today.
 
“If you’re in the military and you lose track of your weapon or something of that nature, that’s a serious, serious infraction,” Dean said.
 
“So you have a combination of graft and mismanagement and this is going on for so many years, it’s just unbelievable and they never seem to hold anyone accountable,” he added.
 
The Pentagon plans to destroy more than $1 billion worth of ammunition although some of those bullets and missiles could still be used by troops, USA Today reported on Monday, citing the Pentagon and congressional sources.
 
However, according to the Government Accountability Office report obtained by USA TODAY, it is impossible to know what portion of the arsenal slated for destruction remains viable because the Defense Department's inventory systems can't share data effectively.
 
Waste, buying new ammunition while usable stockpiles exist, can occur "because the Army does not report information on all available and usable items," the report states.
 
Without its cooperation, the Army "risks other services spending additional funds to procure missiles and ammunition that are already unused and usable in the Army's stockpile," the report added.
 
In total, the Pentagon manages a stockpile of conventional ammunition worth $70 billion.