The Captain’s Journal – by Herschel Smith
Winchester Ammunition, which has manufacturing facilities in Oxford, has won a five-year contract to produce ammunition for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS).
Olin Corp. and its Winchester division have been awarded a contract worth up to $50 million to produce ammunition at its Winchester Centerfire Operations in Oxford for two DHS agencies.
“The Department of Homeland Security’s wide-ranging border security and law enforcement missions require a significant amount of firepower, particularly for training. I’m pleased that Mississippi will be able to fill that need,” said Sen. Thad Cochran (R-Miss.), who serves on the Senate subcommittee with jurisdiction over the Homeland Security Department.
The indefinite delivery/indefinite quantity contract calls for the procurement of 40 caliber Smith & Wesson training ammunition, with a maximum dollar value of $50 million. The ammunition is intended for use by the Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and Immigration Customs Enforcement (ICE) for field-level training.
Most of the DHS uses .40 ammunition right now. At $50 million and around 50 cents per round (that’s high priced and I can find it for less), that’s at least a total of 100 million rounds for range days. With 20,000 field agents in Border Patrol, this amounts to 5000 rounds per agent. They don’t need that many rounds to stay qualified with their firearm.
I wouldn’t begrudge the expenditure except that the Border Patrol doesn’t usually discharge their weapons (Brian Terry fired bean bags), and the Border Patrol has been turned into a giant nanny for aiding and assisting illegal immigration.
And the more Winchester makes for the federal government, the more that drives prices up for me and busies Winchester employees working for the government.
http://www.captainsjournal.com/2014/09/30/winchester-lands-50-million-ammunition-contract-with-dhs/
bulk price is probably a tenth of retail at those volumes.
so it’s probably closer to a billion rounds!
can they formulate the primer or charge so it decays & fails (or random-fires) after say a year???
Maybe they will load all those rounds, but forget to put the powder in. Those loading machines can run out you know.