A new report by Action on Armed Violence offers a detailed analysis of the $40 billion worth of small-arms related contracts the Pentagon has awarded in an effort to arm Iraqi and Afghan security forces since 2001.
AOAV maintains that its analysis of these small arms contracts offer “insight into the lack of transparency surrounding small arms bought by the US government and given to Iraq and Afghanistan – many of which the US government has lost track of.”
A total of 79 companies were recipients of these small arms-related contracts that include everything from battle rifles to optics to ammunition. Ten companies won contracts that combined were worth 65 percent of the total DoD published contracts. Here are the top 10:
- Alliant Techsystems – $21,977,118,613 (101 contracts);
- DRS Technologies Inc. – $3,251,224,478 (8 contracts);
- BAE Systems Inc. – $2,761,670,581 (8 contracts);
- Knight’s Armament Co. – $1,782,974,456 (15 contracts);
- General Dynamics – $1,626,048,701 (36 contracts).
- Colt’s Manufacturing Company – Total Value: $1,372,567,795
- FN Herstal – Total Value: $995,194,319
- Insight Technologies Inc. – Total Value: $790,071,945
- Olin Corp – Total Value: $ 612,415,840
- American Ordnance LLC. – Total Value: $483,022,354
The largest contract listed by the DoD was for the procurement of ammunition and for the operation and modernization of Lake City Army Ammunition Plant, a deal potentially valued at $8,480,000,000.
Check out Military.com tomorrow morning for my full story on this report.
