In August, 2008 Army AT&L charged PEO Ammunition with assuming the responsibility of non DOD standard ammunition acquisition management, who then formalized the Special Ammunition and Weapon Systems (originally knowns as Product Director Non-Standard Ammunition) Product Director Office under the PM MAS organization.

PdD SAWS’s origin traces to April, 2008 when a Task Force was established to address supply discrepancy reports from CENTCOM/Combined Security Transition Command-Afghanistan (CSTC-A) and the Afghanistan Ministry of Defense (MOD) for various non DOD standard munitions items delivered to Afghanistan.

PdD SAWS procures and manages (former Soviet Bloc) non DOD standard munitions that is provided to Afghanistan, Iraq and other friendly nations executing counter insurgency, counter terrorism and security operations. In addition ammunition is being provided to other US services for exploitation test and evaluation, engineering design assessments and threat analyses that support our development of tactical counter measures.

PdD SAWS provides non DOD standard munitions ranging from small and medium caliber ammunition, rocket propelled and recoilless rifled, launched and hand-thrown grenades, mortars, tank and artillery to aircraft munitions Overall, PdD SAWS manages over 400 items totaling in excess of $1.5B.

PdD SAWS affects technology base priorities through coordination with Research Development and Engineering Command (RDECOM) subordinate centers and works closely with Security Assistance for Foreign Military Sales (FMS).