Army Seeks New Ammo Suppliers for Afghanistan

Perhaps not surprisingly, U.S. Materiel Command is hunting around for new suppliers of ammunition for Afghanistan's military. Just as a reminder, the New York Times late last month revealed that the U.S. military had awarded a contract worth as much as $300 million to a company "led by a 22-year-old man whose vice president was a licensed masseur." The Times reported, that among other problems, the military lacked any standards for "nonstandard" ammunition (i.e. ammunition meant for Soviet-made weapons), so old, badly packaged equipment was showing up in Afghanistan:

*An official at the Army Sustainment Command said that because the ammunition was for foreign weapons, and considered “nonstandard,” it only had to fit in weapons it was intended for. *

“There is no specific testing request, and there is no age limit,” said Michael Hutchison, the command’s deputy director for acquisition. “As the ammunition is not standard to the U.S. inventory, the Army doesn’t possess packaging or quality standards for that ammo.”

When purchasing such munitions, Mr. Hutchison said, the Army Sustainment Command relies on standards from the “customer” — meaning the Army units in Afghanistan. And the customer, he said, did not set age or testing requirements.

Just two days after the article came out, however, U.S. Army Materiel Command put out a solicitation for more non-standard ammunition for Afghanistan, but there are now at least some standards:

Materiel will not be supplied in a combination of paper interior packaging and fiberboard exterior packaging. If interior packaging is paper, exterior packaging must be metal con tainer or wood box. If interior packaging is metal container, exterior fiberboard packaging is allowable.

Each package will contain the same type of ammo. Materiel shall be free of dirt and other contaminants which would contribute to the deterior ation of the item or which would require cleaning by customer prior to use.

There's also what looks a related solicitation, issued in January, that also specified the age of the ammunition: "MATERIEL SHALL BE FROM NEW PRODUCTION OR NEW SURPLUS MANUFACTURED WITHIN THE LAST TWENTY (20) YEARS AND SERVICEABLE WITHOUT QUALIFICATIONS."

Companies headed by a masseur, your ne'er-do-well son, and generally shifty characters are still welcome to bid, however.

[High five: Iraq Slogger]