Article Info
Army Ammunition Overhaul
Photo by BrokenSphere (CC BY-SA 3.0)
| Scope | |
|---|---|
| Impact | national |
| Key Entities | |
| New Army ammunition procurement office | Portfolio Acquisition Executive for Agile Sustainment and Ammunition |
| Head of new PAE office | Maj. Gen. John Reim |
| Major ammunition manufacturer facing profit decline | Winchester/Olin Corp |
| South Korean contractor building Arkansas munitions facility | Hanwha Defense USA |
| What It Means | |
| |
| Timeline | |
| January 2026 | Army announces new PAE AS&A office creation |
| November 2025 | Army seeks bids for Pine Bluff Arsenal lease |
| Q4 2025 | Winchester profits collapse to $0.6 million |
Army Creates Ammo Office
New office consolidates ammunition procurement to speed delivery to troops
From The Boise Gun Club Handbook
New office consolidates ammunition procurement to speed delivery to troops
The Army just stood up a new Portfolio Acquisition Executive for Agile Sustainment and Ammunition to cut through the red tape that's been choking ammunition delivery to troops.
One office now controls everything — from requirements to foreign military sales — all under Maj. Gen. John Reim at Picatinny Arsenal in New Jersey. The change ditches the old program-by-program approach for what the Army calls "outcome-driven capability delivery." Less bureaucracy, more bullets where they need to be.
The procurement problem: The new office combines ammunition expertise from the Joint Program Executive Office for Armaments and Ammunition with logistics functions that were scattered elsewhere. During the rollout, they showed off lethal and counter-drone systems including the Picatinny Common Lethality Integration Kit.
By the numbers: The ammunition shortage is hitting everywhere you look.
- Winchester's struggle: Profits dropped 98% in Q4 — from $42 million to just $600,000 — even as sales climbed 3.2% to $449 million. Raw materials like copper, brass, and propellant are killing margins.
- Congress approved: Eight munitions for multiyear deals including PAC-3 missiles, SM-6, THAAD, and AMRAAM
- Facility upgrades: $500 million for solid rocket motor plants to fix supply bottlenecks
Congress isn't making this easier. The Pentagon asked for $28.8 billion in multiyear munitions contracts and got $1.8 billion. Lawmakers want proof these contracts meet legal requirements before writing bigger checks — no official budget request, no adequate funding offsets. Congress doesn't trust the current system either.
Private capital is moving anyway. South Korean defense contractor Hanwha Defense USA is dropping $1.3 billion on a munitions campus at Pine Bluff Arsenal in Arkansas — 1,065 acres, a 50-year lease, and 200 jobs making propellants and 155mm howitzer rounds.
What to watch: Winchester raised prices to offset rising raw material costs, and military sales are already outpacing commercial. The Army thinks things might improve by Q1 2026 as commercial customers work through their inventory backlogs. The Pentagon also has 60 days after the defense bill signing to submit a comprehensive Golden Dome spending plan.
The bottom line: The Army is betting that putting one person in charge can fix what throwing money at the problem hasn't — getting ammunition to the guys who need it, faster and cheaper.
Go deeper:
- Phils Custom Handloads(Swartz Creek, MI)
- Gls Guns(Sumner, IA)
- J & L Gunsmithing(Chesapeake, VA)
- Oliver Firearms(Spartanburg, SC)
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