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12 Jul 17. Orbital ATK Enters into Long-Term Supply Agreements with Premier Commercial Ammunition Suppliers. Orbital ATK (NYSE: OA), a global leader in aerospace and defense technologies, announced today that it has signed multiple, long-term agreements with premier commercial ammunition suppliers, valued in excess of $400m over a three-year period. The agreements span from 2018 to 2020 and provide flexibility to optimize factory operations and best support customer needs and market demands. The supplier agreements focus primarily on 5.56mm and .223 caliber ammunition manufactured at the Lake City Army Ammunition Plant in Independence, Missouri. Since 2000, Orbital ATK has produced more than 17 billion rounds of small-caliber ammunition at Lake City to support U.S. and allied warfighters around the globe as well as commercial customers.
“Our primary mission is, and always has been, to manufacture and provide the highest quality ammunition to the United States Armed Forces and our allies,” said Jim Nichols, Vice President and General Manager of Orbital ATK’s Small Caliber Systems Division of the Defense Systems Group. “Supplementing military production, commercial supply agreements like these are beneficial to both Orbital ATK and our Army customer as they provide an expanded business base for our Lake City operations, workforce, and key suppliers, and help ensure that we stand ready to quickly increase production of small-caliber ammunition for the U.S. Army when needed.”
Orbital ATK’s Defense Systems Group, of which the Small Caliber Systems Division is a part, is an industry leader in providing innovative and affordable precision and strike weapons, advanced propulsion and hypersonics, missile components across air-, sea- and land-based systems, ammunition and related energetic products. (Source: BUSINESS WIRE)
12 Jul 17. Senators call on Army undersecretary nominee to get new tech to soldiers faster. The Army may be in a readiness crisis, Sen. John McCain said Wednesday, but the Senate is reluctant to pour more money into the service as it blows billions of dollars on failed acquisitions programs. McCain, the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, and his colleagues grilled President Trump’s nominee for Army undersecretary, former Ranger Ryan McCarthy, as a potential civilian leader of the service, stressing the need to overhaul the Army’s procurement style. Without a Trump administration pick for Army secretary, McCarthy would immediately be promoted to serve as acting secretary.
“Mr. McCarthy, one of the sources of frustration in this committee is the Army’s acquisition track record,” McCain said. “It’s unbelievable.”
The former 75th Ranger Regiment soldier served during the Afghanistan invasion in 2001 and, following his Army career, worked as a staff member for former Defense Secretary Robert Gates, on the House Committee on International Relations staff, and, most recently, as a vice president at Lockheed Martin, working on the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter program. Meanwhile, the Army has wasted up to $40bn by some estimates, McCain said, on programs like the $2.2bn Crusader howitzer, $5.9bn on the armed reconnaissance helicopter, and the joint tactical radio system.
“Every one of those that I mentioned never became reality,” he said. “Never.”
Army leaders have testified on Capitol Hill multiple times this year that the service needs more funding to meet its current operational requirements and increase end strength for the future. But McCain has rejected the idea of increasing funding until the procurement process shows improvement.
“I’m embarrassed to go in front of my constituents saying, ‘We need more money,’ when we just blew $7.5bn for a thing called Warfighter Information Network-Tactical — or WIN-T — which the Army still is tryin