GAO Reveals Pentagon's Security Flaws at Ammunition Storage Sites

WASHINGTON (Sputnik) - The US Department of Defense needs to tighten up and improve its currently lax procedures for reviewing the security of primary ammunition storage locations, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) said in a report on Monday.

"The Department of Defense stores all of its ammunition in secure locations. However, ‘Category I’ ammunition — such as ready-to-fire nonnuclear missiles — is especially lethal and needs additional security," the report said.

The GAO said it had reviewed the Defense Department’s Category I ammunition storage in select US locations and found that the military services did not conduct some storage location security inspections on time and did not consistently document if all identified security deficiencies were resolved.

"GAO reviewed 125 Army, Navy and Marine Corps inspection reports from select locations and found that 54 inspections (or 43 percent) were late by one day to 14 months. These services have not taken actions to help ensure that physical security inspections are being conducted on time," the report said.

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The US armed services did not consistently document resolutions and only three of 14 Army locations provided documentation about how identified physical security deficiencies were resolved, the GAO added.