![]() After Ducey forced Jeffries to resign in late 2016 following a series of blunders and bad publicity, Arizona Republic reporter Craig Harris broke the story about the guns and ammo, writing that top officials in Ducey's office and the Arizona Attorney General's Office said they were "shocked" and "surprised" by the find. Much of the ammo ended up stored haphazardly, including boxes piled under a desk in one locked office, making for bad optics. Jeffries claims he had no direct input on the purchases. Jeffries, a strongly religious, eccentric businessman tapped to lead the state agency in 2015 by Governor Doug Ducey, had authorized the accumulation of weapons indirectly as part of a plan to replace contract security guards with guards employed by the state agency, which he said would save the state money and enhance safety for DES workers. Jeffries and Loftus were slammed in the media in 2016 following Jeffries' forced resignation and the seemingly ominous discovery of dozens of handguns and the large stockpile of ammo. Phoenix New Times has learned through public records obtained from DES that a fresh audit completed this year has essentially exonerated the agency's former boss, Tim Jeffries, and his ex-security chief, Charles Loftus, of any improper purchases. There is also the pressure owing to the global semiconductor shortage, which affects supply chains.Īccording to the NATO official, member states would be unlikely to meet any increased ammo targets for years, since “any additional stockpiles we will have will be heading to Ukraine” anyway.About 85,000 rounds of ammunition found at the headquarters of the Arizona Department of Economic Security in 2016 weren't improperly purchased, after all. The NATO official said that in the past decades Western militaries had switched to an “Amazon-esque in some ways, sort of just-in-time” system of producing and supplying munitions and that retrofitting it would be “really expensive.”ĭefense producers are reluctant to invest in equipment and the training of skilled labor, both of which are necessary to ramp up production, without a guaranteed stream of government orders for years to come, Reuters explained. ![]() The article also described the challenges of boosting military production that NATO members are facing in their attempt to switch their economies to a war footing. In the last category, the NATO official mentioned the long-range Patriot systems, which Ukraine is yet to receive from its Western sponsors. Those include 155mm howitzer shells, rocket artillery munitions and ammunition for air defense systems. The exact inventory numbers are highly classified, Reuters said, but most of the shortfall is in “battle-decisive munitions”that member states have been sending to Ukraine in large quantities. The NATO source cited in the article expects stockpile targets for member states to be increased based on the recent review. The leaders of the US-led bloc are set to meet in mid-July in Lithuania. The NATO official who described the secret survey of ammunition stocks was not named either. “If Europe were to fight Russia, some countries would run out of ammunition in days,” a European diplomat told Reuters on Monday, speaking on condition of anonymity. What has been revealed, the news agency said, is that a number of European members are not prepared for a possible direct confrontation with Russia. ![]() NATO has surveyed its munitions stockpiles to ascertain how depleted they have become due to the Ukraine conflict, Reuters has reported. Some NATO member states run out of ammunition due to the ongoing hostilities in Ukraine sources tell Reuters news agency
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