It looks like Kalani has his answer on how the transfer of US war munitions was agreed upon and financed between the US and South Korean governments:
Sale of the Century in South Korea
October 10, 2008: South Korea is buying 250,000 tons of American munitions, at 87 percent of the original cost. That’s because the U.S. no longer needs the ammo, spare parts and replacement weapons, and most of it is over ten years old anyway. These supplies comprise about half the 600,000 ton War Reserve Stocks that the United States began assembling in South Korea back in the early 1980s. This was to provide a 60 day supply of ammo for U.S. and South Korean forces, in the event of a North Korean attack. It would take over a month for fresh supplies to begin arriving from elsewhere.
The ammo will go to building up the South Korean armies stocks, which are for only about ten days combat. South Korea will not pay cash for this purchase, but instead will provide $280 million worth of services to move the remainder of the stocks to ports and onto ships for movement back to the United States. The South Koreans will incorporate the American material into their own war reserve. The U.S. officially ended its participation in the South Korea based war reserve program (no longer replacing expired items) two years ago, and has been negotiating ever since on how to deal with this huge amount of material.
Most of the war reserve consists of 155mm artillery ammunition, which is quite heavy. Ten shells, their propellant and packaging, weighs about a ton. South Korea, like the United States, has been switching to smart (GPS guided) weapons. While these weapons are much more expensive, one smart shell can do the work of ten dumb ones.
The material that South Korea is buying won’t be moved. South Korea has been paying $70 million a year to help maintain it, and most of the personnel involved are South Korean. The cost of the material going to the South Korean is about $2.2 billion. [Strategy Page]
Popularity: 1%
6:26 pm on October 13th, 2008 1
The article reiterates what I stated before but confirms what type of ammo is “officially” being transferred. A lot in the article seems to be poly-rot coverup poo-poo type info — like a force-fed info-mercial from the DoD. For example, the “the ammo was over ten years old” crud is laughable. Anyone want to guess what the life-span of the ammo can be? Ten years ain’t squat as long as the munitions meet its serviceability criteria — and all have different criteria.
However, it does confirm that the DoD, Congress and the US President have been working behind the scenes with their approval in this giveaway. It is a sensible move. We don’t need the ammo — it is assumed that what was needed for replenishing Diego Garcia stocks was shipped out long ago — and what’s left is flagged for disposal anyway. The only problem is that the ROK will no longer allow the disposal by open-air detonation and the in-country plant for ammo demolition that the US contributed millions of dollars to back in 2002 — well, does it exist or did the money get pocketed somewhere? This means the ammo would have to be shipped out of country and it would cost almost as much as the ammo is worth. Fiscally it is in the US interests to simply give it away — or offer it gratis to other allies who will pay for the shipment costs.
Bottomline, it is cheaper to give the munitions that is left to the ROK rather than shipping it out to Guam/Saipan for storage or Johnson Atoll for disposal. I think it is a good move.
As to the type of ammo, the article answered the question as to being 155mm artillery which would meet the needs of the ROK K-9 155mm Self-propelled howitzer that is “international standard.” However, disregard the article bit on how heavy the ammo is as just fluff filler that tries to confuse the issue by talking about AIRBORNE smart munitions (JDAMS “smart” bombs). There is one hell of a lot more ammo involved…but no one should make waves over this. With the government bailing out the banks, the US public is not in the mood to hear that the US is giving away $5.3 billion in ammo — oops, I meant $2.2 billion. Yeah, right…
BOTTOMLINE: The WRSA-K munitions that were in the ROK MAGNUMS have been transferred on paperwork to the ROK control. It is now apparent that this has been going on for a while. The ROK munitions control system is much looser than what the USFK is used to, so there might have been a few accountability/inspection issues that had to be ironed out first. Anyway, it is assumed that all of that is in the past. I say, good on the folks who made this happen.
Hooray…let’s forget about the WRSA-K and just move on. But if the ROK even so much as talks about delaying the OPCON transfer in the Oct SCM, I recommend the Department of Defense representative reach over and bitch-slap the ROK official. The US has been paying through the nose to make the OPCON transfer happen and the ROK had better not even think about pulling what Lee Myeong-bak was “considering” in his cabinet meeting last month. It has gone too far to turn back.