Entire Iraq Army To Get M16's!

[-gary]

I'm with Dinger, I think it might be more about firearms control than armament. AK = bad guy and destroyable rifle. M16/M4 = good guy or traceable rifle. Their military is so small, it wouldn't take long to change out the entire arsenal. There's prob enough leftover A2s in some single armory on a post somewhere in the US to outfit their entire country.

Personally, I dislike the idea as much as I do seeing the Israeli Air Force flying around in F16s. I have a protectionist feeling towards military technology, even if it's 50 years old, and that we shouldn't be sharing even with our closest of enemy-friends.

[Iraq Ninja]

I took this photo today. The ammo they are getting is mostly Prvi for 5.56 right now, and wolf for 9mm.

[Iraqgunz]

Ninja,

You are correct. Even my company has to get ammo from Prvi Partizan due to the long waits fro EUC's and approval from State Dept. not to mention the cost and availability. Right now they are the only ones that can deliver in a reasonable amount of time.

[ygbsm]

It could be the M16/M4 is the rifle of the winners. We all want to be a winner. Could be a case of everyone wanting to be like Mike

[Jay Cunningham]

It could be the M16/M4 is the rifle of the winners. We all want to be a winner. Could be a case of everyone wanting to be like Mike

I think this hits closest to the real answer. Arab culture is deeply an "honor culture" and the menfolk tend to get all bent out of shape if they are "humiliated" or "shamed" and I could see the IA having to use the AK/insurgent gun as hurting their pride.

This may be more a morale issue then anything else, sorry to say. Maybe they can send some of those Bulgy AK's back this way...

[Hawgleg44]

First, the excuse for the rediculous price hike of 7.62x39 was the war, supply and demand, then it was the rising cost of raw materials. Sorry, but if Dillon Precision only had to raise the cost of a complete reloading press $10 in 7 years due to material cost, why the 100+% rise in a case of Wolf 7.62x39?

Anyway, I never heard of a real excuse for the rising cost of Wolf .223, since no military that I know of uses it. But, all the ammo companies decided to line their pockets with gold and jack up their prices, too. Now, even for companies who don't supply Iraq with .223/5.56, they will still use the war as an excuse to jack up prices even more.

IMO, the ammo companies, with their frivilous rises in retail pricing, have done more in the past 2 years to hurt the future of shooting sports in this country than the anti-gunners have in the past 10. With the crazy pricing of ammo now, how are young people, college students, newlyweds with a new mortgage/children, supposed to afford to shoot? It's sad. If there was a justifiable reason for FIVE price increases in one year, fine, but there's not. It's total BS. Now, all these new Iraqi M16 are going to amount to is yet another reason for a .223 price increase.

[ToddG]

Didn't we cover this one already?

Ammo prices are rising because the cost of raw materials is through the roof. Maybe Dillon can absorb it due to their existing margins or perhaps their material costs don't depend much on huge-scale international trading of lead, copper, and brass.

The war effort has little to do with it, at least directly. The shortage doesn't come from the amount of ammo being used in Iraq & Afghanistan. It comes from China (and other emerging nations) buying up huge quantities of raw metal, which pushes prices up. Add to that the continually weakening dollar and US companies are paying a huge premium for the metals used in, among other things, the making of loaded ammunition.

Do you really think ATK, Remington, and Winchester joined together and formed a cabal with Wolf, PMC, Fiocchi, and every other ammo manufacturer on the planet to fix prices? That's seriously tin-foil-hat talk right there. Believe me, if ATK could squeeze 5 points off their prices at the next major bid, they'd do it in a heartbeat.

You may have noticed that the prices of lots of things have gone up over the past year. Is that all part of the same Vast Ammo Conspiracy?

[panzerr]

Having been over there, working with "Iraq Forces", IMO they should be issued sling-shots and water balloons!

Ditto. I have nothing but disdain for the majority of the Iraqi Army.

http://www.sixty-six.org/index.php?id=273

[chadbag]

First, the excuse for the rediculous price hike of 7.62x39 was the war, supply and demand, then it was the rising cost of raw materials. Sorry, but if Dillon Precision only had to raise the cost of a complete reloading press $10 in 7 years due to material cost, why the 100+% rise in a case of Wolf 7.62x39?

Where did you get this crazy idea? Dillon has raised the price of their presses about $80-$100 in that time frame at least. I have been selling them for 12 years. They have had price increases the last 3 or 4 years each year plus a couple every other years ones before that. Jan 1 2008 the retail price of a RL 550B went up $16! Jan 1 2007 it went up like $20 and the year before that $10. That is around $46 in the last 26 months. And I talked to the dealer manager at the SHOT Show and he said that with many of their items, their price increases really only played catch-up and they are already falling behind again.

When I started selling Dillon in 1996, I think that the RL 550B was about $259.95 or $279.95 or something like that. Now it is $395.95.

Chad

[variablebinary]

Perception is reality. Notice in the pic above what they look like...not a piece of shit 3rd world militia. Goes a long way...