U.S. needs to buy 300 million more bullets

[quaoar]

http://www.isn.ethz.ch/news/sw/details.cfm?id=10515

US barters missiles for Taiwanese bullets

ISN SECURITY WATCH (07/010/05) – The US has placed an order for 300 million bullets from Taiwan at a cost of US $6.2 million, and has agreed to sell the island republic air-to-ground Hellfire missiles worth US$50 million in return. Media reports said that the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq have taken their toll on US ordnance supplies, and the US army has placed an order for 300 million 5.56mm caliber bullets, the standard caliber for automatic rifles. Taiwan’s defense industry will now have to increase its production from 100 million to 400 million bullets a year. With shipping and insurance, the order should be worth around NT$2 billion (US$6.2 million). The final negotiations were still underway on Friday and the actual price was yet to be decided. The bullets are to be produced mainly by the Ministry of National Defense's (MND) Plant 205 in Kaohsiung, which currently has a surplus of ammunition resulting from the lack of any major military engagement across the Taiwan Strait in recent years. The US order would revive the plant, which has laid some of its staff as demand dropped. In return for the bullets, the US has agreed to sell air-to-ground Hellfire missiles worth to Taiwan, US defense giant Lockheed Martin said today, a move expected to rile rival China. "The US Army has executed a letter of agreement with Taiwan, setting the stage for the sale of more than 400 AGM-114M blast-fragmentation Hellfire rounds under a foreign military sales contract," the company said in a statement.

[Bouncy Ball]

1. Didn't WE used to make bullets?

What happened?

And um, is that a good thing to trade missles for bullets?

I guess the troops in Iraq can yell "This death brought to you by a Tiawanese bullet" as they are shooting?

[lenidog]

4. Yes we do

but its probably got something to do with the fact that to be environmentally conscious the US military can't have bullets with lead cores anymore. All the US producers are probably tooled up for lead and not tungsten which is what they stick in bullets now. It also gives Bush an excuse to keep Taiwan's armaments factories going and because its a part of the deal sell them some newer weapons.

[madrchsod]

2. we never had enough of anything when

bush pulled the trigger on this massacre. he was told and refused to listen and he has reeped the whirlwind of the iraqi sands.

[Endangered Specie]

3. Im sure China is happy about this.

</sarcasm>
;)

[RC]

5. Is there any reason the US can't gear up to make

it's own ammo, here in the US of A? It's our war after all. Why can't we supply our own?

Hellfire air-to-ground missiles to Taiwan? Are these idiots trying to start a war with China?