Defence admits weapons, ammunition stolenEXCLUSIVE by Janet Fyfe-Yeomans September 25, 2007 02:00am Article from: Font size: + - Send this article: Print Email
ADF launches theft investigation Live rounds fired at trainees ADF fought News Ltd's FoI request
MACHINE guns, rifles, pistols, hand grenades and night sights are among a deadly arsenal of weapons and ammunition stolen from the Australian Defence Force, The Daily Telegraph can reveal.
The ADF also launched an investigation into possible ammunition tampering after live bullets were fired instead of blanks during a training drill at the School of Infantry at Singleton in March last year.
In a catalogue of errors, the ADF has revealed other lost weapons have turned up in the wrong place, including pistols supplied to members of 38 Squadron on duty in the Solomon Islands which were found to be at RAF Townsville.
The ADF was forced into the embarrasing admissions by an FOI request made by The Daily Telegraph.
Defence fought the request for more than a year on the grounds of national security but lost on appeal.
However the ADF withheld information which it said could provide terrorists or organised crime groups with sensitive information they could use to build up a picture of the Commonwealth's counter-terrorism capabilities.
The ADF did not include the theft of 10 rocket launchers from an army base near Sydney, probably because they had no idea when they were stolen and therefore did not come under the time frame of the FOI request.
Nine of the launchers remain missing and police claim they were sold on the black market to bikie gangs and then to Islamic extremists.
An ADF spokeswoman said last night they had not discovered the anti-armour weapons were missing until December last year.
Yesterday opposition defence spokesman Joel Fitzgibbon said the level of weapon theft had reached extraordinary proportions.
The ADF has revealed thefts and losses continued despite tightened security at armouries in 1998 and again in the wake of the 9/11 terror attack on the World Trade Centre in 2001.
In that time there have been over 300 security reviews of armouries.
"Regrettably, despite strict controls, weapons are lost or stolen from the ADF," one of the defence reports said.
"ADF unit armouries feature security measures such as intruder alarms linked to a response capability and surveillance arrangements."
Between July 1999 and January 2006 (when The Daily Telegraph submitted its FOI application) 32 current in service weapons had been reported lost or stolen and not recovered including three machine guns, 12 rifles, two night sights and 12 pistols.
Mr Nelson in December announced another nationwide audit of defence force weapons and munitions to be overseen by a board that includes a representative of the spy agency ASIO.
