Conservative lawmakers and officials are trying to block the sale of a U.S. ammunition maker to a foreign company.
Vista Outdoor, based in Minnesota, announced in October that it had agreed to a $1.91 billion sale of its firearms business to the Czechoslovak Group (CSG) based in Prague.
CSG is a major supplier of munitions and military equipment to Ukraine in its war against Russia.
The National Sheriffs’ Association and the National Association of Police Organizations are against the CSG deal over concerns that a foreign company would hold a significant portion of the U.S. small-arms ammunition market, The Wall Street Journal reported.
There’s also concern about the sale amid global arms shortages sparked by the wars in Ukraine and Gaza.
Sens. JD Vance, R-Ohio and John Kennedy, R-La., Rep. Clay Higgins, R-La., and former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo are among those who have urged the Treasury Department to block the sale through the Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S. (CFIUS), which is reviewing the purchase.
Vista, which produces ammunition brands such as Remington, is entertaining a rival bid from a Texas investment group with former Vista board member Mark Gottfredson.
Vance sent a January letter to Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, who chairs CFIUS, alleging that CSG had ties to Russia’s leadership, the Journal reported.
“We cannot afford for America’s supply of weapons to fall into the wrong hands,” he wrote
In an open letter to Vance, CSG owner and CEO Michal Strnad defended his company and the potential sale.
“CSG is one of the most important private supporters of the Ukrainian military effort, a country to which we have supplied much-needed weapon systems dating back to 2018, well before the outbreak of open Russian aggression,” Strnad said in the letter.
“Since the Russian army’s attack on Ukraine, we have supplied the Ukrainian Army — with the help of the government of the Czech Republic and other NATO countries, including the U.S. — over a hundred pieces of heavy equipment and, most importantly, hundreds of thousands of pieces of artillery ammunition, of which we are one of the most important European manufacturers.”