Army Stockpiles AK-47 Bullets To Dry Up Domestic Supply (VIDEO)

U.S. Army Buying Millions of Rounds of Russian Ammo and Popular Civilian Firearms

The U.S. Army is now looking to stockpile nearly 3,000,000 live rounds of Soviet-era Russian ammo popular with civilian shooters.

A U.S. Army solicitation posted July 18 on the Federal Business Opportunities web site asks for "non-standard" ammunition from vendors which includes:

- 2,550,000 rounds of 7.62x39mm ball ammo
- 575,000 blank rounds of 7.62x39mm ammo and
- 425,000 rounds of 9x18mm Makarov ball ammo

The army intends to store all these rounds in ammo storage facilities at both Camp Stanley in Boerne, Texas and the Blue Grass Army Depot in Kentucky.

As the solicitation implies, the 7.62x39mm and the 9x18mm Makarov are not standard-issue in the U.S. military or NATO.
Rather they are calibers developed by the former Soviet Union which are now commonly used by civilian shooters in the United States.

The 7.62x39mm in particular is extremely popular with private gun owners due to the wide availability and affordability of both military surplus ammo and firearms chambered for this round, such as the AK-47 and the SKS.