These are upgrades that improve "lethality and stand-off distance." Remington has received a $28,000,000 dollar contract to upgrade 3,600 rifles.
Do the math. That's $7,777 per gun, which cost less than half that when new.
This is one contract out of how many, thousands, tens-of-thousands?, many of which reward military contractors exorbitantly. No wonder military spending is out of control.As a country we sure as hell are on top when it comes to killing humans better than any other but just can't find the resources to develop alternative energy sources or transportation. You know things like that which are important to more people that live here than better ways of killing human beings.
If anyone thinks our country's war stance and involvements around the world will ever become much less than what it is now you are wrong. It is only going to grow larger. We are screwed big time and have been for a very long time.
Our country is addicted to war and the stupids will never question even when it affects them in a negative way.
We love our blood and guts way too much!!
What's your opinion? Please leave a comment.
In June of 2009, the military purchased 38 million rounds of .300 Win Mag sniper ammunition for use in Afghanistan. This is long range ammo, not used in shorter range 7.62x51 NATO sniper rifles or the very long range .50 BMG sniper rifle, nor is it used by regular troops. It was needed to fill in the gap between the other two common sniper rifles.
ReplyDeleteGiven the greater distances and terrain of Afghani battlefields, this makes perfect sense. What I question though is the total--38 million rounds. There are only 32 million people total in the whole nation including men, women, children, taliban insurgents and NATO troops.
Apparently FWM, the military is allowing for multiple rounds to be used by snipers, rather than assuming one would do.
ReplyDeleteBesides, who knows how reliable any census of Afghanistan is, given the circumstances.
OR, maybe the U.S. government purchaser of the ammo was listening to the right wing crazies who want to go after Iran.... and /or Pakistan. We could only hope that there was some bulk order discount in play (but I doubt it). I can just imagine the infomercial...getting some of it for free, paying only exhorbitant shipping and handling....
How many rounds were fired getting bin Laden?
I would assume that many hundreds of rounds would be fired in training and practice for every round fired at a live target.
ReplyDeleteIt just struck me as funny that one set of rifles, maybe 1% of all rifles used in the theater, would require more ammo than all of the living people in the region. I wonder how many 10's of millions of regular ammo we go through in just that area of operations?
That is funny, and consistent with the excessive nature of military contracts and spending.
ReplyDeleteLook, if they didn't make 38 million rounds and have 28 million to "dispose" of (by selling them for scrap to some enterprising entrepeneur--who could then turn around and sell them as Mil Spec Sooper Dooper Sniper Ammo to all of the survivalist asshats out there), why, it just wouldn't be MurKKKin!
ReplyDeleteYeah, it's a racket and guess who's payin' for it?
ReplyDelete