China knockoffs of US bullets used by Taliban

Rowan Scarborough:

China's robust arms industry has been able to duplicate U.S.-made, armor-piercing rounds, and the bullets are being found with the enemy in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Two government sources tell HUMAN EVENTS the sniper ammunition is sending alarm bells through the Pentagon as it hurries to keep pace by producing improved body armor for soldiers, Marines, airmen and sailors.

The sources said the Chinese munitions are not thought capable of defeating the super-hard ceramic plates that now protect service members against smalls-arms fire, including armor-piercing bullets.

But there are intelligence reports that China is using the copycat bullets to spring board to an even better armor-defeating rifle round that would be able to kill protected personnel.

That is why the Army this year has been on an accelerated testing and developing schedule to field the next-generation ceramic plate in 2009.

Personnel are currently protected by the Interceptor system, which includes a tactical vest and the ceramic plates called the Enhanced Small Arms Protective Inserts, or ESAPI.

The Army has declined to publicly identify the future threats it sees so as not to tip its hand to al Qaeda, the Taliban and other terrorists bent on killing Americans.

But two senior U.S. officials with access to military intelligence tell HUMAN EVENTS that the Army is alarmed at the U.S.-style bullets showing up in the war theater and at the prospect that even better ones are on the way.

"Anytime that our rounds are reproduced and turn up in the war zone and used against us is a problem," said one of the officials. "It's something the military has been looking at for some time."

Some military officials assume the rounds find their way to Afghanistan and Iraq through the international black market, a ready source for a wide variety of Chinese-made weapons and ammunition.

One source told HUMAN EVENTS that Chinese munitions entered the war zones via "multiple paths, to include the black market and there are,unfortunately, a number of willing buyers."

One known route is Iran, which is buying Chinese weapons and smuggling them to insurgents in Iraq. The Baghdad government is signing arms contracts with China -- another possible way for bullets to fall into the hands of terrorists inside Iraq.

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Sniper shells are a specialized munition and it is not surprising that the Chinese would try to duplicate US ammo. What should be of greater interest is finding the way the logistic trail between China and the Afghan battle space.