Mercenary’s War
Chapter 1367 - One Thousand Three Hundred Fifty Strategic Reserve Depot

Chapter 1367: Chapter One Thousand Three Hundred Fifty Strategic Reserve Depot

Kofupake pondered for a moment, then waved his hand and said in a deep voice, "Let me explain it to you in detail from the beginning. I belong to the Ukrainian Army Logistics Department, with the rank of lieutenant colonel, and my specific duty is the chief supervisor of the No. 1206 Ammo Depot."

After taking a deep breath, Kofupake stretched his hand, swallowed, and continued, "The ammo depot I’m in charge of was established during the Soviet era. It used to be part of the strategic reserve depot, directly overseen by the Ministry of Defense, but now, it has been reassigned under the jurisdiction of the Northern Combat Command. However, it remains one of the two strategic ammo reserves near Kiev."

Gao Yang frowned and said, "Wait a minute, are you talking about an ammo depot, not a weapon depot?"

Kofupake nodded and said, "Yes, an ammo depot, not a weapon depot. What we stockpile are primarily assorted ammunition; the garrison troops in Kiev, as well as the armored units, all get their ammo from us. Apart from rocket launchers, there are no complete weapon systems; basically, it’s all kinds of ammunition, various types of ammunition."

Gao Yang instinctively touched his ear and then smiled, "Please continue."

Kofupake exhaled and said, "Our ammo depot is a strategic material reserve, but recently, we have also started to shoulder the task of supplying ammunition to all units near Kiev. The consumption from each unit’s training is replenished by us. When the stocks in their small depots are insufficient, they are transferred from our ammo depot. Basically, it can sustain the consumption of two infantry divisions, one mechanized division, plus one armored division for three years."

Gao Yang swallowed, quivering, "So large!"

Kofupake nodded and said, "Yes, do you need me to tell you the general inventory status?"

Gao Yang immediately said, "Of course, please."

Kofupake scratched his head and said, "In our ammo depot, there are about 120,000 crates of 5.45mm bullets. Oh, large crates. There are also many magazines, about 100,000 crates of 7.62X54mm machine gun bullets, around 70,000 crates of 12.7mm bullets, approximately 10,000 crates each of 14.5mm machine gun bullets and 23mm autocannon shells. These are small-caliber; for larger calibers, we have shells, about 2,000,000 rounds of 82mm mortar shells, around 400,000 rounds of 122mm shells, about 1,600,000 rounds of 152mm shells along with their casings, approximately 1,200,000 rounds of 122mm rockets, and tank shells. We have 125mm armor-piercing shells and armor-piercing shells in limited numbers, around 200,000 rounds."

Gao Yang had been trying to contain his excitement, but finally couldn’t help it and said in a trembling voice, "Such a large ammo depot? So many, so many, how can it all be transported?"

This time, it was Kofupake who was shocked. He looked at Gao Yang and said with a trembling voice, "Transport all of it? These things weigh at least tens of thousands of tons. Even if you use a train, it would take at least dozens of trips. Even with a large freighter, you’d need at least two ships, right? Just moving these things out of the warehouse alone would take at least a month; this is a strategic reserve depot!"

Gao Yang swallowed and said with a bitter face, "Aren’t there any guns and cannons, or things like APCs and tanks?"

Kofupake shook his head and said solemnly, "No, but I do have mines, tens of thousands, hmm, those were left by the Soviet Union, and RPG rocket launchers. Only this is a ready-to-use weapon system, approximately 100,000 units, and rockets of various types, adding up to about 400,000 to 500,000 rounds. These things sell fast, so no one knows the exact number."

Gao Yang exhaled and said in a trembling voice, "No 7.62mm intermediate bullets and grenades?"

Kofupake shrugged, "Of course there are, over forty years in stock, a lot, a lot, very many."

"How many?"

Kofupake shook his head and said, "I don’t know, I don’t know how many, grenades about one to two million? As for bullets, 200 million rounds? I don’t know, people have been shipping these items out since the Soviet Union dissolved, yet there’s still a lot left, but nobody bothers to count them. In short, as much as you want, you can have."

Gao Yang sighed and said, "This is troublesome, this is troublesome, did you know?"

Li Jinfang and Eileen also wore bitter expressions. Having too much can be a headache too, especially when these things can be moved at will, but the transportation capacity in hand to haul all these would take at least a few months, making it even more troubling.

A box of 5.45mm bullets has more than 2,000 rounds; 120,000 boxes, even if calculated as 2,000 rounds per box, still rounds up to more than 200 million rounds.

Generally, bullets are boxed according to the weight a soldier can carry, so most bullet boxes weigh about 30 kilograms each, 100 boxes are 3,000 kilograms, that’s three tons. How much can one vehicle carry? Even without considering volume, a truck hauling 50 or 60 tons is pretty much its limit, and that’s only 2,000 crates.

A vehicle can only transport 2,000 crates of bullets, and how much does one crate cost? 300 bucks, Uriyangko sells them to the Skull Gang at this price, not a cent more. That means hauling one vehicle’s worth of bullets is just worth $60,000, and that’s just the selling price. Moreover, this is the price for 5.45mm bullets; the 7.62mm intermediate bullets are even cheaper, so cheap that Gao Yang doesn’t even want them.

Gao Yang was stunned to find that the freight costs far surpassed the cost of buying this truckload of bullets. He scratched his head vigorously, and then looked at Kofupake with a bitter smile, saying: "These things are so cheap, it seems I’m going to need a long time to recoup my costs."

Kofupake shrugged and said: "Ammo depots, well, that’s the way they are, not worth much, it’s all about volume."

Having bought an ammo depot, yet finding the items too cheap, Gao Yang began to feel distressed. He was upset that Grand Ivan was disrupting the arms market too aggressively. No wonder other arms dealers wanted to deal with him; with Grand Ivan dumping at such low prices, how could anyone else who was making high profits bear it?

Gao Yang looked at Li Jinfang and Eileen, and with a bitter smile said: "We can forget about emptying this ammo depot."

Considering Little Donnie’s painstakingly prepared logistics, Gao Yang and his team wouldn’t be able to empty the depot in a year, because transportation had to rely on the White Shark Gang. They could at most form a fleet of over a hundred large trucks, and the shipping port was in Odessa. Even if everything went smoothly, they could make one round trip a day, transporting only between 500,000 to 1,000,000 worth of arms each time. This efficiency was no good. Moreover, any losses along the way, such as confiscation, would be a great setback.

If they could move things gradually, without anyone interfering, Gao Yang would be willing to invest more to buy the depot. But alas, that’s impossible. He couldn’t leisurely haul stuff out of the depot forever. Given Gao Yang’s usual cautious strategy, two days in a row would be pretty good.

Eileen also looked troubled and said: "Buddy, your ammo depot is so large, isn’t there anything valuable in it?"

Kofupake laughed and said: "Of course there is, good stuff is left to talk about last."

Gao Yang was so irritated he almost wanted to slap Kofupake twice. But despite being troubled, he was also quite happy, very happy indeed.

"F**k! If there’s something valuable, you should’ve said so earlier! I thought I was going to lose money on this deal. Quickly, tell me, what good stuff do you have there?"

Kofupake chuckled and said in a deep voice: "Missiles! Man-portable air-defense systems!"

Gao Yang was overjoyed and said: "Air-defense missiles? That’s valuable stuff; how many do you have?"

Kofupake shrugged and said: "More than you can load, well, in 2006, our warehouse underwent a refurbishment and several better-conditioned warehouses were built, mainly to store missiles. I’ve got about two hundred SA-18 air-defense missiles, close to three hundred SA-7 ones, all SA-7B models."

Nearly five hundred air-defense missiles, Gao Yang felt his heart almost leaping out. With such a large batch of man-portable air-defense systems, let those cheap bullets and shells go to hell.

Eileen’s face was full of joy as she said: "Why so many?"

Kofupake shrugged and said: "Many? I don’t think so. This is most of the man-portable air-defense systems possessed by the Northern Combat Command to secure Kiev’s airspace—these few missiles aren’t considered many. I’ve told you, this is a strategic reserve depot."

Gao Yang excitedly asked: "Is there anything else, valuable stuff?"

Kofupake thought for a while and said in a deep voice: "Yes, anti-tank missiles, 9M113 anti-tank missiles. The number is around five hundred, quite accurate since it was counted not long ago. But there’s a problem, there are missiles but no launchers, not a single launcher."

9M113 is the Soviet Army’s code name; these are second-generation anti-tank missiles equipped by the Soviet Union in the seventies. NATO calls them AT-5 Spandrel missiles, which can be vehicle-mounted or used by infantry.

Gao Yang’s heart was almost jumping with happiness. Not having launchers is not a problem; he can find them elsewhere. The key is the missiles, which are much pricier than shells—each goes for over ten thousand US Dollars. With these around, this becomes a profitable deal.

"Anything else? Anything else?"

Looking at Gao Yang’s eager expression, Kofupake chuckled and said: "Since our depot cannot meet the requirements for storing missiles, only one warehouse built in 2006 meets the standards, so we just stored a small batch. Besides these, there are only about 300 or so 125mm cannon-launched laser-guided anti-tank missiles. We are holding these temporarily for the First Tank Brigade, as their stockpiles cannot store them at present. However, they are yours now if you want them. Apart from that, there are no other missiles—that’s all there is."

Gao Yang exhaled a long breath and then looked at Kofupake, saying: "Great, very great. Now I only have one question left, can you guarantee that we can get these goodies out?" (To be continued. If you like this work, please visit Qidian (qidian.com) to cast recommendation votes, monthly tickets. Your support is my greatest motivation. Mobile users, please visit m.qidian.com to read.)