Pentagon taking steps to avert ammunition crisis.

The Army is upgrading its manufacturing facilities and reaching out to more contractors to replenish its diminished supply of small-caliber ammunition, Col. Mark Rider, project manager for maneuver ammunition systems, told National Defense.

A modernization plan for old machinery is being matched with a new procurement strategy. Both are intended to fill the immediate demand and create a stockpile that will meet coming needs, military and industry officials said.

Among the most debilitated munitions stocks are .50 caliber and 7.62 mm rounds, which have few reserves, a low production rate and some of the oldest assembly-line machines. It's a perfect storm for an ammo crisis if nothing is done, Rider said. "We must stockpile ammunition, especially with these calibers."

The increased demand for direct fire ammunition is not entirely attributable to shooting in war zones, but also to the many live-fire exercises that precede deployments. Building ammunition reserves is a vital part of maintaining overall readiness, Rider said. The need for small-arms ammunition "is going up, and is going to keep going up."

New government-owned production plants are not the answer, Rider said. "We're not discussing a new facility."

Instead, private firms have picked up the slack. "We went out and outsourced to the commercial sector in large quantities to augment the organic base," Rider said. "And the commercial base is viable."

Among the emergency contracts for small-caliber ammunition signed in 2004 were deals with two foreign firms, located in Israel and South Korea.

One goal of the new program is to formalize and expand private-sector contracts. By the end of the year, the Army will issue a contract for 300 million rounds. The winning contractor will have to produce rounds at its facilities, rather than at the government's single low-caliber ammunition plant still in operation, the Lake City Army Ammunition Plant in Missouri.

A major ammunition supplier will be selected as a lead systems integrator. To fill the order, the LSI will partner with domestic and international companies. That selection is expected by the end of this summer.

If there is a need in 2006, a contingency contract may be issued for another 200 million rounds, Rider added.

During World War II, 12 government-owned plants made ammunition. By Vietnam, only two remained. The Lake City plant is the only one remaining in operation. The facility there is the largest small arms ammunition manufacturing plant in the world.

Concurrent with the private-sector contracting is an effort to maximize production at Lake City by rehabilitating its aged equipment. The facility, run since 2000 by ATK Alliant Techsystems, has reached annual production of 1.2 billion rounds, and is aiming for 1.5 billion rounds, said ATK spokesman Bryce Hallowell.

In 2000, Lake City delivered 350 million rounds a year, he noted.

To produce those increases, ATK is busy overhauling equipment that dates to World War II.

Hallowell said ATK has been trying to consolidate the infrastructure, with staff moving 200-foot-long assembly lines and 15-foot-high heavy machinery into fewer buildings. "We try to stand up equipment that had basically been in mothballs," he said. "There hasn't been a whole lot of change in the manufacturing process. It's the scale."

Since 2002, ATK has hired 1,400 new employees. The plant has been operating ceaselessly, and military and industry officials make sure to note that the front line units are not suffering shortages. They assert the effort is heading off a calamity at the pass. "The forces in the field are getting the amino they need," said Hallowell. "The issue is, let's make sure we can avoid a crisis."

During the Vietnam War, Lake City approached an annual production rate of 2 billion rounds. Equipment from that era, and before, is refitted for today's needs, but the unceasing pace of production hampers modernization. "You can't afford to have a shutdown when you're running around the clock," Rider said.

Hallowell said that by rotating feeder lines and cutting out unnecessary steps from the process, modernization and maintenance can be worked into tight schedules. This "proves to be a logistical challenge, but right now it's what the Army needs."

Hallowell said 80 percent of the modernization effort at Lake City was spent on hardware, such as new presses and automated inspection systems. The remainder funds electronics and software upgrades.

Even with Lake City at full production, Rider said that more ammunition is needed to fill the stockpiles.

ATK is one of the bidders for the new, private-sector contract, Hallowell said, and hopes to leverage its expertise into another large sale. If ATK wins, it would convert a sports ammunition line to military specifications, and rely on national and international partners to reach 300 million rounds, he said.

The budget for ammunition and expanded production has increased to $285 million this year, including $100 million in supplemental funds provided by Congress for operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. "Funding for munitions looks good," Rider said, later adding that "we've gotten more funding, but we need more."

Rider said the military must adopt an organized approach that takes into account surges in the requirements for ammunition if it is to avoid past mistakes. He called for better tracking and logistics abilities to predict short- and long-term ammunition needs.

"We simply can't go up and down like we did in the past," Rider said. "We must have a prognostics capability."