Agreed. Newer ammunition of about five years old or less is regarded as more reliable than older ammo. Task forces and battle groups sent to conflict zones are equipped with the most modern ammo in the inventory, barring War Stock (i.e. ammo set aside for a general war). Older stock nearing the end of its shelf life is used at training and its operation is therefore not critical. The plugs I find on my favourite beach (they were fitted to 25 Pr HE shells) are dated anything from 1931 to 1943 and I suspect it only became a range during WW2. Nos 117, 119, 221, 250 and M54 fuzes that I find are dated between 1937 and 1943 (M54 remains are usually dated 1942). The .303 cases I find there are generally dated 1937 to 1943, the .50 Inch cases are dated 1942 and 1943, the 20 mm cases are dated between 1940 and 1942, although I suspect training there would have carried on well into 1944. If there is a shortage of an ammo type then I would expect almost brand new ammo to be taken on operations, with some used at training if it was deemed the troops needed more training first. But going back a step further, the ordnance factories would conduct their own proof firing to ensure the ammo meets expected performance parameters. Note that in the 1980s "Ammunition Surveillance Programmes" were introduced, the name was also at one time "Complete Round Proof." This was a way of recording how Land Service ammo at various stages of its life behaved when fired. For example did the incidence of failures increase with age? Did Gun propellant (i.e. Gun and Howitzer propelling charges) still produce acceptable ranging data when fired? During my time ammo that didn't perform entirely within expected performance parameters but was deemed safe for use at training would not be sent for operational use. In Belize in 1988 we had a few boxes of old 7.62 mm from the mid 1970s but they were sea dumped. We also had some 2 Inch Illuminating mortar bombs from the mid 1960s. We were told to disassemble them and destroy the explosive components. We had some 105 mm Smoke and Illuminating shell which if I remember correctly were fitted with L92 fuzes. Despite being correctly packaged the humidity had got in and corroded the fuzes very badly and the stock had to be destroyed. High temperatures and high humidity do nothing to extend the shelf life of ammo. I noted that the Milan anti-tank missiles captured from the Iragis in 1991 were all around 10 to 13 years old. A 10 year old Milan in British service would only have been used at training. Our army would have had to have virtually no modern ammo for the old stuff to be used operationally.
