Surge to strain supply lines

Afghan War Costs U.S. Far More per Troop Than Iraq

Andrew Scutro reports for Defense News

With presidential orders to surge 30,000 troops into Afghanistan at "the fastest possible pace," in early 2010, U.S. logisticians and planners are scrambling to coordinate the movement of units and tons of materiel over thousands of miles into an exceedingly prohibitive environment.

Although military logisticians had been prepping for months against the possibility of a surge, detailed planning began only after President Barack Obama announced the new strategy Dec. 1. Senior leaders say it's too early to estimate the price tag of moving the new forces rapidly into a landlocked Asian country.

"We have not figured out any of the transportation costs yet, and I really wouldn't want to give a guess at that right now," said Army Brig. Gen. Michael Lally, director of operations and plans at U.S. Transportation Command.

Lally said calculations on airlift and support requirements will not be made until after the Pentagon issues a detailed deployment plan and schedule, which should be available in mid-December.

They won't come cheap.

Delivering just one Army brigade combat team of more than 3,500 troops to Bagram in northern Afghanistan requires a massive airlift of people and weapons to be carefully coordinated with gear-laden, contractor-operated convoys that debark at Karachi and crawl 1,250 miles over vulnerable Pakistan supply routes.

"Afghanistan is an incredibly tough area to deploy forces into," Lally said in a Dec. 3 conference call with defense reporters, "because you've only got a couple airfields you can fly into and going into Karachi and up that [ground route] is a challenge, so we'll work that very closely."

With 71,000 troops there now, recent experience may serve as a guide to effort and expense. In fiscal 2009, the Pentagon spent $4 billion to move troops and gear into Afghanistan: $2 billion for air transport, $120 million for sealift and the balance for port-handling and inland transport, according to figures the Defense Department provided to Congress.

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