TAIWAN TO SUPPLY U.S. AMMO?

It’s been an open secret for a while now that the U.S. mil­i­tary is run­ning low on ammu­ni­tion. But a new sup­plier may be emerg­ing, if for­eign press reports are accu­rate. America may start buy­ing some of its bul­lets from Taiwan.
According to Taiwan’s United Evening News, the Pentagon is prepar­ing to buy 300 mil­lion rounds of 5.56mm cal­iber bul­lets, straight from Taiwan’s Ministry of National Defense.

According to an unnamed top level mil­i­tary offi­cial, this marks the first time America has sought to pur­chase from the Taiwanese defense estab­lish­ment. The offi­cial said that Taiwan seeks only to recover pro­duc­tion costs on the deal, and that should any profit be made it would go towards fac­tory expenses.
Production will take place at Plant 205 in Kaoshiung, which is part of the Ministry of National Defenses Bureau of Armaments and Acquisition. The absence of large-​​scale mil­i­tary con­flict in the Taiwan region over the past decades has led to sur­pluses and stor­age prob­lems at this facil­ity. The grad­ual decline in demand has resulted in Plant 205 oper­at­ing at a frac­tion of capac­ity, so the deal with the Americans will be like a del­uge after a long drought.

The deal could be refresh­ing to U.S. mil­i­tary plan­ners, as well. The short­age of small-​​arms ammu­ni­tion is so severe that, about a year ago,the Pentagon con­tracted with an Israeli firm to sup­ply the bul­lets. But Congress wasn’t exactly psy­ched about how Al-​​Jazeera might por­tray Jewish State ammo being used on Muslims in Iraq. Taiwanese rounds may be less explo­sive, polit­i­cally.
(Special thanks to Defense Tech pal Jonathan Schmidt for the translation.)

January 11th, 2005 | Ammo and Munitions | Comments Off Both comments and pings are currently closed.