Is Army running out of ammo? – Miriam

Half-a-billion pesos had been advanced for the supply, but the manufacturer delivered only less than a tenth of the order.

“Stop the war, we’re out of ammo.” The Army might well say that to the enemy, as its ordnance dwindles due to slow fabrication.

The state manufactory is unable to produce the right ammo grade for the Army’s new weapons, military sources say. The security crisis was brought to the fore by recent reports that only less than a tenth of needed training ammunition has been issued.

The info confirms what the Army disclosed last week – that the Government Arsenal (GA) in Bataan has yet to overcome “technical issues.” The Army spokesman said half-a-billion pesos had been advanced to the GA, but the latter delivered only 7.5 percent of the order.

The sources detail the incompatibility of “ammo grains” with “barrel twists.” An example is the U.S.-made M-4 carbines that the defense department purchased in 2013 for the Army and Marines.

The GA still is “struggling to retool” for M855 ammo of 62 grains, to suit the 1:7 barrel rifling twist of the M4, the sources explain. For decades the factory has been making the M193, 55-grain variant, for the old Elisco M-16 rifles with 1:12 twist.

Such details expectedly will come up in an inquiry by Sen. Miriam Defensor Santiago. “How can we expect our troops to defend our sovereignty and territory when they have no ammunition or equipment for training?” demanded the senator who comes from a family of soldiers. “Funds have been disbursed, why were supplies not delivered?”

Only P42.4 million worth of ammo was delivered to the Army in 2014. That, said the Commission on Audit, was despite the payment of P569.6 million to the GA.

The GA was silent when Army spokesman Col. Benjamin Hao pointed up its non-delivery. “The Army is always open to any inquiry; we will answer (the senator’s question),” he said. “We will explain to her what we did. We will tell her that we are following the procedure... It’s they (the GA) that must explain what happened.”

It was not clear how the Army covered the 92.5-percent balance of the training ammo. “It must be asked if it was forced to import more expensive supplies from abroad, and for how much,” an Armed Forces general suggests.

The sources score the government’s faulty military modernization, as exemplified by the GA’s failures. “If the GA cannot even produce the right ammo for the Army’s basic rifle, what is it capable of then?” a retired ordnance colonel asks. To which a general adds: “Mind you, the GA keeps receiving huge amounts under the Defense Capability Upgrade.”

A week earlier, the M-4 carbines were in the headlines due to factory defects. The DND’s military affairs head Col. Noel Detoyato announced the repair of rear sights of 19,886 M-4s by U.S. maker Remington Defense. He also said 24,300 more carbines were ready for distribution to the Army and Marines.

The repairs were made after the Army’s Training and Doctrine Center rejected the M-4s and field units recalled the defective ones. The rear sights tended to slip off from zero-target. Inaccurate fire, especially in close counter-terrorist combat for which the weapons were acquired, could cost thousands of soldiers’ lives.

Ordnance experts told this column that the repairs were slipshod. The rear sights merely were fastened with clips that supposedly may fly off from prolonged use.

DND sources also decried the very purchase of 50,629 M-4s from Remington in 2013. The company never was a maker of military-spec M-4s, they said, only variants for hunting and plinking. This put in doubt how it was able to comply with two basic bidding requirements: (1) that the supplier must have previously been contracted for at least 50 percent of the DND procurement, and (2) that it has supplied the military-spec to at least two other countries.

Before the purchase, Defense Sec. Voltaire Gazmin was negotiating with Colt U.S.A. and its Malaysian factory for the local manufacture of the M-4s. Suddenly, however, Defense U-Sec. Fernando Manalo and Asst. Sec. Patrick Velez announced the P1.7-billion bidding.

Oddly the M-4’s very developer, Colt, was disqualified along with another manufacturer, leaving Remington as the sole bidder. Gazmin approved both the bidding and the consequent purchase.

When news of the recall broke, Remington’s local partner took exception to the number and mode of repair. The company said the full rear sights of all 50,629 M-4s were replaced, not just installed with clips. The partner acknowledged, however, that the Army TADC did reject the Remington products.

Documents from sources show that the M-4s were rejected not only due to the defective rear sights. There also were no side-swivel slings, and the heat guards were too thin.

It was not clear if Remington remedied those defects too, along with two minor complaints about unfamiliar and vulnerable parts.

Manalo and Velez were linked to last year’s anomalous purchase of 21 defective combat-utility helicopters for P1.3 billion. The Air Force reportedly rejected the first nine deliveries because un-airworthy. Some units supposedly wouldn’t fly. All were merely refurbished, with missing parts and no manuals.

At the height of a media exposé, Gazmin was forced to cancel the late delivery of the other choppers. The Senate investigated the anomaly as well.

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