Scraping the Barrel: The Trade in Surplus Ammunition (Issue Brief 2)

Submitted by Lionel Kosirnik on 25 January, 2021

Small arms and light weapons need ammunition. Government forces and armed groups cannot wage battle or train their troops without a sustained supply of ammunition, and its availability determines the type of weapons used in most of the conflicts around the world. The surplus ammunition market provides the buyers with cheap, easily available, and compatible rounds. It also allows the suppliers to reduce potentially obsolete national stockpiles, and to benefit from the revenues of surplus sales.

An Introductory Guide to the Identification of Small Arms, Light Weapons, and Associated Ammunition

Submitted by Lionel Kosirnik on 16 December, 2020

Arms and ammunition are evidence. Many weapons carry marks that, combined with their physical characteristics, reveal important information about them, including their manufacturer, age, and origin. This information, in turn, provides vital clues about the sources and flows of weapons in the area in which they were found.

A Practical Guide to Life-cycle Management of Ammunition

Submitted by Lionel Kosirnik on 16 December, 2020

Ammunition is an expensive commodity and an essential resource for the implementation of a national defence and security policy. However, national ammunition stockpiles can also pose risks to national security and public safety. Poor accounting and inadequate physical security of storage facilities can facilitate the diversion of ammunition from the national stockpile to terrorists, criminals, and other armed groups, increasing insecurity and instability.

Unplanned Explosions at Munitions Sites (UEMS): Excess Stockpiles as Liabilities rather than Assets

Submitted by Lionel Kosirnik on 16 December, 2020

Unplanned explosions at munitions sites (UEMS) are a significant safety concern for governments and a major security challenge for the international community. 

This Handbook contains analysis of this data, with many helpful tables, figures, maps, and annexes. It serves three primary purposes, striving to:

Life-cycle Management of Ammunition (LCMA): Lessons from Bosnia and Herzegovina

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on 24 November, 2020

Surplus ammunition poses significant safety and security risks in post-conflict settings, which is why effectively managing such ammunition is vital to mitigating those risks. This Small Arms Survey Briefing Paper provides ten lessons learned on the establishment of a life-cycle management of ammunition (LCMA) system in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The lessons relate to national ownership, planning, stockpile management, and disposal.

Translated into Arabic by the EU-LAS project.

Chambering the Next Round: Emergent Small-calibre Cartridge Technologies (Working Paper 23)

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on 24 November, 2020

Emergent ammunition technologies are likely to prove key in future firearms designs. Emergent cartridge case technologies, the rise of the ‘general-purpose’ calibre, and other nascent technologies will affect the way in which firearms are designed, produced, managed in service, tactically employed, maintained, and sustained.

Feeding the Fire: Illicit Small Arms Ammunition in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Somalia (Issue Brief 8)

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on 24 November, 2020

Consistent access to small arms ammunition is vital to armed conflict; this is particularly true in conflicts involving non-state armed groups that rely on illicit small arms and light weapons as their primary tools of war.

A detailed examination of seized or documented small arms ammunition may help to reveal the history and alliances of a conflict, while the tracing of illicit ammunition can identify
manufacturers and supply routes.

Following the Headstamp Trail: An Assessment of Small-calibre Ammunition Documented in Syria (Working Paper 18)

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on 24 November, 2020

These two publications, from the Security Assessment in North Africa (SANA) project, offer insight into the situation in Syria, investigating the variety and availability of small arms ammunition documented in the country, and the presence and role of foreign fighters in the ongoing hostilities.

Industrial Demilitarization of Conventional Ammunition (Research Note 37)

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on 24 November, 2020

In many countries, excess stockpiles of obsolete or unserviceable munitions have reached a level requiring demilitarization on an industrial scale, often in a race against time, because the ammunition tends to become unsafe with age.

Since states rarely have the capacity to demilitarize the surplus ammunition stockpiles of their collective security forces, they often turn to private demilitarization contractors.