![]() The South Korean 10th Fighter Wing transferred the rounds to the 7th Air Force in March, a wing official told Stars and Stripes by phone on Friday.ĭepleted uranium is 1.6 times more dense than lead, making it an ideal material for armor-piercing projectiles, according to the National Library of Medicine. "The 7th Air Force munitions logistics and safety experts were involved in this decision and have no safety or environmental concerns," Jeter said. The 30mm rounds are typically fired from cannons mounted on A-10 Thunderbolt II attack planes. The rounds were stored at a South Korean ammunition warehouse in Gyeonggi province, she said. sometime this month and will be destroyed according to routine procedures, said spokeswoman Lt. Air Force deemed the 30mm rounds "unserviceable due to an expired shelf-life," a 7th Air Force spokeswoman told Stars and Stripes by email Tuesday. "I actively welcome this depleted uranium ammunition relocation." "If an explosion accident takes place at the ammunition warehouse, hundreds of thousands of people could be injured," Kim said. The rounds presented a risk to public health and safety, Kim Jin-pyo, a member of the National Defense Committee and the Democratic Party, said in an email to Stars and Stripes on April 5. 14-CAMP HUMPHREYS, South Korea - South Korea recently returned approximately 1.3 million rounds of armor-piercing ammunition made of depleted uranium to the United States, a welcomed departure, according to a South Korean legislator. The Congressional Research Service Report says "the government of Israel pays for approximately 90 percent of transportation, storage and maintenance costs associated with the WRSA-I program.Apr. ![]() The transfer of the munitions to Israeli control "can take place in a matter of hours of a presidential authorization." Use of the stockpile in case of an emergency "is defined and authorized by the president," said the official. "If the president authorizes release to Israel, an "emergency" Foreign Military Sales case is processed by the DoD and the ammunition is sold to Israel," said the official. Israel's access to the American ammunition can be done fairly quickly once there is presidential approval. The defense official says the amount of ammunition in the stockpile is now worth about $1 billion. It initially held $100 million worth of ammunition, but by 2010 Congress had authorized $800 million worth of ammunition to be stored there. The size and scope of the arsenal has grown since it was first established in the 1990s. The official said Israel has not requested to use ammunition stored in this stockpile as it did during the 2006 war with Hezbollah. or Israeli forces." Though the weapons in the stockpile belong to the United States they are essentially for Israel's use when they ask for it should they run low on certain stocks of ammunition in emergency situations. managed ammunition stockpiles in Israel for use by either U.S. defense official says "this program consists of U.S. However, a Congressional Research Service report from April says "the United States stores missiles, armored vehicles and artillery ammunition" in the stockpile.Ī U.S. The location of the stockpile as well as the types and quantities of ammunition it stores are classified. ![]() It is a congressionally approved program that has grown in scope in recent years.Įverything You Need To Know About The Israel-Gaza Conflict The little-known stockpile is officially known as War Reserve Stockpile Ammunition-Israel (WRSA-I) and has been maintained inside Israel since the 1990s by United States European Command. So far, Israel has not requested access to the stockpile during the current hostilities with Hamas in Gaza. Should Israel find itself low on ammunition, it can tap into a stockpile of a billion dollars worth of American weapons stored in Israel by the United States for emergencies.
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