Industrial Base

As the single manager for conventional ammunition, the Army buys conventional ammunition for the military and maintains production lines for required convention ammunition and components. The ammunition industrial base provides the capability for producing munitions, such as artillery, bombs, and rockets, and well as hundreds of different end items and components. This report provides information on (1) the quantity, the location, and the condition of artillery projectiles in Army and Marine Corps inventories and these inventories in comparison to stated requirements; (2) the Army's production base for artillery projectiles; and (3) the Army's plans for procuring new advanced artillery rounds.

GAO found that: (1) in November 1994, the Army's inventory of artillery projectiles totalled 20.8 million at the wholesale level; (2) the Army's inventory consisted of 27 types of projectiles stored at U.S. and international locations; (3) over 98 percent of the inventory was usable, but some projectile types were understocked or obsolete; (4) the inventory was more than adequate to meet the Army's training and combat requirements for most artillery projectiles; (5) as of March 1995, the Marine Corps' inventory of 24 projectile types stands at about 4 million, of which about 85 percent is usable; (6) the Marine Corps has also understocked five of the 24 projectile types while maintaining seven types of obsolete projectiles; (7) because of decreasing requirements and funding constraints, the Army has reduced its active industrial base for artillery projectiles; (8) the Army believes that the reduced base is adequate for meeting its planned procurements as well as that of the Marine Corps; and (9) although the Army plans to produce 3 of its 4 new advanced artillery projectiles in-house, it has not yet decided where to produce the projectiles' metal parts.