USA Today: Pentagon to destroy $1B worth of ammunition

[Angel Eyes]

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2014/04/27/pentagon-ammunition-sen-tom-carper-gao-waste/8145729/

It's impossible to know what portion of the arsenal slated for destruction — valued at $1.2 billion by the Pentagon — remains viable because the Defense Department's inventory systems can't share data effectively, according to a Government Accountability Office report obtained by USA TODAY

*facepalm*

The services have inventory systems for ammunition that cannot share data directly despite working for decades to develop a single database. Only the Army uses the standard Pentagon format; "the Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps operate with formats that are obsolete."

*double facepalm*

The services hold an annual conference to share information about surplus ammunition and swap bullets and other munitions as needed. Data about ammunition left over after the meeting disappears from the books, resulting in an unknown amount of good bullets headed to the scrap heap.

*triple facepalm*

The report illustrates the obsolete nature of the Pentagon's inventory systems for ammunition. A request for ammunition from the Marine Corps, for example, is e-mailed to the Army. The e-mail is printed out and manually retyped into the Army system because the services cannot share data directly. Not only is this time consuming, but it can introduce errors — by an incorrect keystroke, for example.

*quadruple facepalm*

I will also point out that rifle, pistol, and shotgun ammo should be sold as surplus to us civilians rather than destroyed.  At today's market prices, the Pentagon could make a bundle.

[Scout26]

Given the "wastage"  I observed at every single range I ran (and believe me, EVERYBODY burned up ammo like it was going out of style), I am truly shocked that there is any excess ammo.

And yes, they could make a fortune selling the surplus.  However, TPTB would rather bury it all in a landfill, then to sell it to us.

[HankB]

. . . However, TPTB would rather bury it all in a landfill, then to sell it to us.

I don't understand why it can't be used for training purposes, if nothing else.

[charby]

I don't understand why it can't be used for training purposes, if nothing else.

...exactly what I was thinking.

[Fitz]

I don't understand why it can't be used for training purposes, if nothing else.

Because this is the military we're talking about. If you, as an officer, make sense... that leads to bad OERs and non-selects for promotion

[Ben]

I guess the CMP will be out of luck in getting any as well?

[KD5NRH]

I don't understand what is so "different" or "obsolete" about these formats that a perl script can't translate.

[Nick1911]

I don't understand what is so "different" or "obsolete" about these formats that a perl script can't translate.

Reminds me of a funny story...

One day the company where I work hired on a quirky but very intelligent dude I knew in highschool.  I hadn't kept in contact with him, but I was aware that he had completed a degree in computer science, and gone on to complete a masters in the same.

So he's sitting in a meeting, the topic being how their team was going to load some data files in from some archaic format.  The crew is going on and on about the enterprise level ETL tool they use, and how difficult it'll be to get the map wired up for this format.  Dude pipes up, "You guys know we could just knock this out in perl in a couple hours, right?"

Whole room looks at him like he has two heads.  Now, mind you, I have a pretty good understanding of the problem space -- in my opinion the suggestion was, eh, maybe a bit naive from a maintenance perspective, but would have actually worked just fine.  And probably would have been faster, both to write and execute.  It wasn't that difficult of a job, honestly.

The reaction was more of a that's not the way we do things here then one based in technical merit.  It was an interesting case study into the group-think and associated politics in a corporate environment.

[TechMan]

Because this is the military we're talking about. If you, as an officer, make sense... that leads to bad OERs and non-selects for promotion

Probably if you have any money left in the budget, then your getting less next year.

[RevDisk]

I don't understand what is so "different" or "obsolete" about these formats that a perl script can't translate.

Whole room looks at him like he has two heads.  Now, mind you, I have a pretty good understanding of the problem space -- in my opinion the suggestion was, eh, maybe a bit naive from a maintenance perspective, but would have actually worked just fine.  And probably would have been faster, both to write and execute.  It wasn't that difficult of a job, honestly.

The reaction was more of a that's not the way we do things here then one based in technical merit.  It was an interesting case study into the group-think and associated politics in a corporate environment.

This, and this.

The solution could likely get knocked out with a perl script, or awk/sed. But the problem is, those that know how to fix it don't have the authority to fix it. Those that have the authority to fix it don't know how to fix it.

[Angel Eyes]

Probably if you have any money left in the budget, then your getting less next year.

Undoubtedly this is also a factor.

[Scout26]

Reminds me of a funny story...

One day the company where I work hired on a quirky but very intelligent dude I knew in highschool.  I hadn't kept in contact with him, but I was aware that he had completed a degree in computer science, and gone on to complete a masters in the same.

So he's sitting in a meeting, the topic being how their team was going to load some data files in from some archaic format.  The crew is going on and on about the enterprise level ETL tool they use, and how difficult it'll be to get the map wired up for this format.  Dude pipes up, "You guys know we could just knock this out in perl in a couple hours, right?"

Whole room looks at him like he has two heads.  Now, mind you, I have a pretty good understanding of the problem space -- in my opinion the suggestion was, eh, maybe a bit naive from a maintenance perspective, but would have actually worked just fine.  And probably would have been faster, both to write and execute.  It wasn't that difficult of a job, honestly.

The reaction was more of a that's not the way we do things here then one based in technical merit.  It was an interesting case study into the group-think and associated politics in a corporate environment.

Ahhhhhh, The Five Monkeys.   

[fifth_column]

Ahhhhhh, The Five Monkeys.   

The experiment sounds like the way religions are formed.

[T.O.M.]

Because this is the military we're talking about. If you, as an officer, make sense... that leads to bad OERs and non-selects for promotion

This, and the Clinton cutbacks, are why my Army career ended at O3...

[dogmush]

Also, no one in the Army cares.

The last decade or so has been crazy for budgets, especially ammo. Why bother to figure out this crap when you can just get more ammo? The wartime ammo supply was crazy even for stateside units. That's just started to go away last year.