The Pentagon is spending a billion dollars to destroy $16 billion in over purchases of military-grade ammunition. The amount of surplus ammunition is now so large that the cost of destroying it will equal the full years’ salary for over 54,000 Army privates.439 How the military came to purchase so much ammunition it didn’t need was uncovered in a 2014 Government Accountability Office (GAO) investigation.440 Certain kinds of
ammunition became “obsolete, unusable or their use is banned by international treaty,” according to Pentagon officials.441 However, GAO found that record-keeping for ammunition was also poor, and that accurate
records were hard to come by for the nation’s $70 billion ammunition arsenal.442 Over time, the amount of ammunition deemed no longer necessary has grown to nearly 40 percent of the Army’s total inventory: “According to an Army financial statement in June 2013, the Army had about 39 percent of its total inventory (valued at about $16 billion) in a storage category for ammunition items that were excess to all the services’ requirements.”443 However, the Pentagon may be throwing away ammunition that could still be used. According to GAO, some of the material set for destruction has at times been found usable.

wow they need to surplus this and recoup some $$$$$ what a waste of money.