Ammo Shortages Undermine Navy, Marine Corps Training.

• Author: Tiron, Roxana

Navy and Marine Corps tactical aviation units do not have enough ordnance to meet their training and exercise requirements, according to a report by a government watchdog agency.

The General Accounting Office said that Navy units are experiencing shortages in inert laser guided training rounds and guided bombs, while the Marines are short on supplies of both advanced training ordnance and common ordnance, such as live bombs. The agency's report was released in July.

A former Navy ammunition program manager, who spoke under condition of anonymity, said that these shortfalls in ammunition could be attributed in part to high-level decisions by the Navy to shift funds from ammo accounts to shore up force-protection initiatives.

The demands for naval force protection increased dramatically since the October 2000 attack on the USS Cole in Yemen. Top officials at the Pentagon are "extremely interested in force protection, as rightly they should be," said the source. But the source cautioned that the money to pay for the additional force protection may have cut too deeply into other priorities, such as ammunition. "That results in not buying training rounds and combat rounds," the source said.

In its report, GAO noted that the Navy assigned a low funding priority to ordnance, but also pointed out two other reasons that led to the aviation munitions shortage--an ineffective process for determining annual ordnance needs and an allocation system that does not put the ordnance where it is needed for training.

A 1997 Defense Department directive, entitled "Capability-Based Munition Requirements Process," gave guidance to the military services on developing their ammunition requirements. The undersecretary of defense for acquisition, technology and logistics has the responsibility for implementing the directive, which aims to ensure that ordnance requirements address the operational objectives of the regional commanders in chief.

According to the Pentagon's policy, the calculation of the total munitions requirement is not supposed to be shaped by anticipated funding shortfalls.

Last May, the House Armed Services Committee asked the service chiefs to provide a list of their unfunded priorities. The list, which was submitted in July, did not include aviation ordnance, said Richard Palaschek, head of the munitions industrial base task force, which represents ammunition manufacturers. The Navy did, however, ask for $123 million for live-fire training ordnance and another $213 million...