Ammunition Management: A Joint or Army Function?

摘要

Without question, "the arsenal of democracy," as President Franklin D. Roosevelt characterized the U.S. industrial base, has acquitted itself marvelously in supporting U.S. warfare since the start of World War II. However, there is also no question that the U.S. Government's organic ammunition industrial base is filled with World War II-vintage production equipment (leavened with a smattering of Vietnam War-era machinery) and that this Government equipment is actually considered the "modernized" production equipment in the overall domestic base. How can the United States be considered the world leader in industrial capabilities and yet allow the organic ammunition base to degrade to the point that all U.S. energetics, small-arms ammunition, and larger-caliber ammunition are produced or assembled on the very best equipment that our great-grandparents could make?