Obsolete Military Hardware

[Red Beret]

When the military "decommisions" a particular piece of hardwear, be it vehicle, weapon, or otherwise, I have been told they bury these items.

I know this because, firstly, the do not give old gear to the reserves, and it is not sold off. Sometimes it is stored in massive warehouses but this takes up resources, and space. I have also been told by two army mates that this (burying old stuff) is fairly common. They don't bury ammo or explosives, and what have you. But rifles, tanks, mortars, jeeps, field artilley, is the sort of stuff they "dump".

This brings a number of questions to mind;
1. If you found these dump sites, how risky would it be to recover items.
2. Would it be worth it.
3. Could you transport and actually store the gear.

I think, realistically, only small arms would be worthwhile in taking. That is, if you can get the ammo. Tanks, 105mm guns, reccoiless rifles would be too bulky, plus you could'nt really get the ammo to use in these items.

Some sites are near barracks, which rules them out. But others, including a large WW2 US and Australian stockpile, are not. These would be the ones to focus on. You cannot expect to find these easily though, the locations that I have been told of aren't pinpoint, and you can expect them to be buried deep. Occaisionly, diesel is poured onto the caches and ignited before burial. This is no real concern.

Cases in the past have exsisted, where people have "stumbled" on these sites and been busted selling hardwear. Some WW2 homeguard sites exist, and these would mainly contain ammo (.303, maybe mortar) grenades, and maybe explosives.

One would need a team, and at least some technical gear to locate the sites. Oh yeah, and someone to actually tell them where the sites are. :rolleyes:

The reason all this has been on my mind, is that the Australian army has recently taken the M-79 out of service. I made some enquiries, with mates, and heard about all this business. Have any of you heard of such things? I will be looking into this matter intensely.

[sparkchaser]

I don't know about the Australian army, but the U.S. army takes all of the obsolete/worn out equipment and "demil"s it. After the stuff has been demilled, they take it to DRMO who sells it at auction to the public in giant lots.

Nothing that is hazardous is whole by the time it goes to auction. Machine gun barrels are cut through the chamber etc. Usually the only thing that this stuff is good for is recycling/scrap.

About the only good things you can get out of these auctions are old vehicles that are beaten up pretty badly but still run, and engine blocks that can be rebuilt. You can sometimes find obsolete electronics, such as printers and the like, but who wants to buy a pallet of junked laser printers that weigh 40 pounds each?

[FragmentedSanity]

I have heard similar tales, but cant personally verify it. So maybe there is something to it, or maybe its just a bit of Aussie folklore? But the old timers in the town I grew up in swore that old jeeps, motorbikes and various other military gear was buried under the footy field.
I'd love to find some sites like that, but as you said the problem would be finding someone who knew the info and wanted to pass it on.

[megalomania]

I have seen some US military auctions where they sell surplus military goods, but only for scrap. They sell the stuff to certified recyclers and make sure it gets scrapped. A naval warship came up for auction a few years ago; a steal at $1 million, but you had to scrap it completly :( Probably $10 million in useful metal, but all from a $100 million ship. Those metal scrap dealers make out like bandits (many are mob owned...)

[Bert]

The average profit from scrapping a large ocean vessel is said to be around US $1.9 million.

Ship breaking is a hard, dangerous and environmentally dirty task. If done in the US, the overhead for environmental cleanup, insurance & etc. is insane- So most such work is done in Asia somewhere that these considerations can be largely ignored, and the price of a workman's life or local contamination can be abated by payments to the right people. China, India and Bangladesh are the centers currently- Lots of heavy metals, hexavalent chromium, asbestos, chlorinated organic toxins and other goodies coming off those ships!

[Red Beret]

OK, I've been asking people I know, and have came up with two sites. One is WW2 and is a mountain complex, vents etc are barred and welded up. It's public knowlege basically.

The other is more recent and is basically buried metres below. I have pinpoint location on the WW2 site, but not the other one.

The WW2 site is about 8hrs from me, so I won't be checking it out anytime soon. The other is about 4hrs away, but I don't have the exact location for it. Anyone interested may PM me. It would be worthwhile looking into.

[Jacks Complete]

A magnetometer will find them, if they are there. You can build one easily, the instructions are available online. Getting it to work whilst walking might be a bit tricky, though. That much buried metal should be trivial for even just a compass, though. Your magnetic north will go crazy, even with feet of earth between you and the "deposit".

[Cobalt.45]

Through the years, many thousands of weapons have been dumped at sea. WWII- era weapons went by way of this, for some of them.

Also, illegal gaming devices and slot machines, just to name two.

Sometimes within sight of land, but I suspect with GPS so readily available, this has mostly stopped.

Much easier to dump at sea, than to f with digging/ securing sites where stuff is buried, I would think.

[Jacks Complete]

The issue with dumping at sea is that divers find them, and the green lobby gets really upset about all the nasty shit that leaks out.

Trashing them with power tools then dumping in a hole then burning and burying kills 95% of things.

[c.Tech]

Divers cant find them if they are dumped into the deep dark ocean depths. Maybe that’s where they dump them.

[Storm on the Horizon]

I know this because, firstly, the do not give old gear to the reserves, and it is not sold off. Sometimes it is stored in massive warehouses but this takes up resources, and space. I have also been told by two army mates that this (burying old stuff) is fairly common. They don't bury ammo or explosives, and what have you. But rifles, tanks, mortars, jeeps, field artilley, is the sort of stuff they "dump".


I know for a fact that (as of 1999) Regular Army arms were transfered to Reserve units. That year the 10th Mountain Division was phasing out M16A2's for M4's. Representatives from a Reserve unit showed up in our Company arms room escorted by other 10th Mtn personel. The unit armorer and myself read off the A2's serial numbers which were marked off and confirmed by my C.O. and the Reserve units C.O. The M16s were then packed up and driven somewhere else on post where they were to be rechecked and shipped out. Everything that occured was "kosher" and I'm sure wasn't/isn't the only time that it has occured.

The M60 was also being replaced by the M240 around that year. I was told that the same thing occured though I wasn't present to witness that transfer.

[shooter3]

I remember reading in an old "Cruising World", A yacht was cruising in the Carolina Islands, and was in a real secluded place, a small atoll of about 10 acres was covered, shore to shore with parked "P-38"s".

At the end of WW-2 the Captains of cargo ships were told to dump there cargos of equipment, to make room for returning solders. Apparently, one Captain couldn't bare to just dump these planes into the ocean and instead off loaded them onto this Island. They were still there, bright and shiny, in 1985! That would be some valuble salvage!

[Ksmith]

I've heard of several instances where in the US people found machine guns buryed/uncovered, things like .50 caliber M2's, mortars, grenades and whatnot, most common(its rare to find them alltogether) are M60's and other small machine guns. Most are so rusted that their innoperable.

I remember a buddy of mine said when he was in the army he found a crashed plane which still had 8 .50 caliber M2's still loaded with 1947 ammo in pristine condition, barely even rusted, he told his commander though.