Christmas Video from Afghanistan/Cheap MoD buying non-functional bullets

[Grey_Fox]

https://youtube.com/watch?v=nQUR9qiTEnY

The MoD bought cheap ammo from the Czech Republic.

Almost every single round is a jam or a misfire. The MoD insists the ammunition is good, even whilst ordering commanders to buy the bullets off Canadian and other allied troops.

For those with no patience it starts on 2.20.

Editted because I realised I said the same thing three times...

[CrossLOPER]

It's a lot funnier when you're under fire and your guns do that.

[Fragony]

This is just unbelievable. If you have to send troops at least give them proper equipment.

[Orb]

"Don't worry Jim, just put them in the bag labelled 'TA' and send them off!"

[Vladimir]

Are you sure it's the bullets? They seem to be firing good enough but they're not being ejected. This is because either the rounds aren't powerful enough or there is something wrong with the weapon. In a dirty environment like that I'm not sure if the weapon doesn't need maintenance.

A decent comparison is when (ok, "war" story) I had a blank adapter fly off my M-60. Each round would fire fine but I had to manually cycle the ammunition. The Czechs make decent firearms, explosives, and one would think...ammunition. I think there's something wrong with the weapon.



Edit: Look at the difficulty he is having in cycling the weapon.

[Philippus Flavius Homovallumus]

I don't see a fifty jamming like that normally. It started off okay and then it just ground to a halt. Excessive fouling on the bolt from shoddy powder I expect.

[Grey_Fox]

The MoD tested five batches of bullets, all were found to be defective.

[Vladimir]

The MoD tested five batches of bullets, all were found to be defective.

Didn't see that in the Video.

How many rounds in a batch?

How many batches in an order?

How many batches from each order tend to be defective?

Excessive fowling from bad ammunition? You don't get that after firing the few number of bullets shown in the vid. Maybe excessive fowling from bad maintenance.

[Grey_Fox]

Sorry twas in the news. Here ya go:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main...23/nammo23.xml

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Cheap bullets put lives of paratroopers at risk

The lives of paratroopers were put in danger after the Ministry of Defence sent defective ammunition to Afghanistan, it can be revealed.

The situation became so serious that a platoon from the 3Bn The Parachute Regiment refused to go out on patrol until the problem was resolved. The troops had to borrow ammunition off Canadian and American special forces as they battled to fight off Taliban attacks.

The MoD, which yesterday unveiled plans for British troops to make a quicker-than-expected withdrawal from the front line in Iraq, has been unable to explain why defective ammunition for the .50 calibre Browning heavy machinegun was sent to Afghanistan.

It is thought that the batch was from either Pakistan or the Czech Republic, where a round costs 60 US cents. The price for British, Canadian or American ammunition is $1.50. With many thousands of rounds fired, using cheaper ammunition would have saved thousands of pounds.

A shocking demonstration of the poor quality rounds is shown on a video posted by a paratrooper on the YouTube website. It shows two soldiers in a sandbagged position struggling to operate the machinegun, which can also be mounted on Land Rovers.

One is shown constantly re-cocking the weapon as his colleague seeks to feed through the ammunition belt. At one point, the Para, who becomes exhausted with the strain of constantly pulling the cocking handle, drops the gun and swears in frustration. All the time incoming enemy fire can be heard.

The Browning has given troops in Afghanistan a boost in terms of firepower. It fires 550 rounds per minute and they can penetrate buildings and lightly-armoured vehicles.

It is thought that the defective ammunition was designed to fit the Russian-made DsHk 12.7mm heavy machinegun. The bullets are cut with less precision, leading to stoppages when fired from the Browning.

A Parachute Regiment officer involved in the fighting said: "The ammo we had was rubbish. It just kept jamming. At one point we refused to go out because it was so bad. Eventually we managed to scrounge some Canadian rounds.

"If we had not got that ammo we would certainly have lost a lot of people."

After the protest, senior technical officers tested five different batches of ammunition. They were all defective.

The Paras obtained ammunition from the Canadians and Americans and it was only when British special forces became involved that the situation was resolved. Rounds were bought from Canadian stocks in Afghanistan. "They refused to believe it was all crap until special forces got involved," the Para said. "After that we had the new stuff within a week."

An MoD spokesman said: "There are no current problems with this ammunition."

[Vladimir]

Cool, thank you.

Edit: It is thought that the batch was from either Pakistan or the Czech Republic

They don't know?!?