3 ms·

These costs were due to air refueling. And then delivering fuel by helicopter. Applied to really far away mountain areas with no road access at all.

KronisLV 5y ago
Why, though? Concerns about the quality of the locally available fuel? Concerns about the supply of the locally available fuel? Or just some monetarily aligned motivations?
- elmomle 5y ago
  I have to assume security issues with shipping large quantities of fuel to bases by ground had something to do with it, though presumably the adopted solution was an extravagantly wasteful one driven by a culture of budgetary excess.
- masklinn 5y ago
  I imagine both quantity and quality (including the risk of wilful adulteration) were issues. The first one would be compounded by fuel economy rarely being high on the list of concerns for military procurement.
- pjc50 5y ago
  Probably the quantity of the locally available fuel. Not to mention that many of the locals were buying their fuel from Iran. https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/8/24/iran-resumes-a-crucial-lifeline-to-afghanistan-fuel https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/8/24/iran-resumes-a-cruc... But the corruption involved was just staggering, in all directions. Here's a Kyrgyz guy misappropriating Russian jet fuel and selling it to the US in 2010: https://foreignpolicy.com/2010/12/21/did-an-american-contractor-get-kyrgyzstans-president-kicked-out-of-office/ https://foreignpolicy.com/2010/12/21/did-an-american-contrac... / https://www.justsecurity.org/2726/the-juice-worth-squeeze-kyrgyzstan-fuel-contracts/ https://www.justsecurity.org/2726/the-juice-worth-squeeze-ky... But of course even the locals couldn't buy fuel without protection money being paid to the Taliban, so that's what the US ended up doing: https://www.cnbc.com/2021/09/10/9/11-millionaires-and-corruption-how-us-money-helped-break-afghanistan.html https://www.cnbc.com/2021/09/10/9/11-millionaires-and-corrup... > According to a Pentagon analysis, 40% of the $108 billion that the Defense Department paid to contractors in Afghanistan between 2010 and 2012 ended up in the hands of either the Taliban, the violent Islamist Haqqani terror network, organized crime rings, transnational drug traffickers or corrupt Afghan officials.

KronisLV 5y ago

Why, though? Concerns about the quality of the locally available fuel? Concerns about the supply of the locally available fuel? Or just some monetarily aligned motivations?

elmomle 5y ago
I have to assume security issues with shipping large quantities of fuel to bases by ground had something to do with it, though presumably the adopted solution was an extravagantly wasteful one driven by a culture of budgetary excess.
masklinn 5y ago
I imagine both quantity and quality (including the risk of wilful adulteration) were issues. The first one would be compounded by fuel economy rarely being high on the list of concerns for military procurement.
pjc50 5y ago
Probably the quantity of the locally available fuel. Not to mention that many of the locals were buying their fuel from Iran. https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/8/24/iran-resumes-a-crucial-lifeline-to-afghanistan-fuel https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/8/24/iran-resumes-a-cruc... But the corruption involved was just staggering, in all directions. Here's a Kyrgyz guy misappropriating Russian jet fuel and selling it to the US in 2010: https://foreignpolicy.com/2010/12/21/did-an-american-contractor-get-kyrgyzstans-president-kicked-out-of-office/ https://foreignpolicy.com/2010/12/21/did-an-american-contrac... / https://www.justsecurity.org/2726/the-juice-worth-squeeze-kyrgyzstan-fuel-contracts/ https://www.justsecurity.org/2726/the-juice-worth-squeeze-ky... But of course even the locals couldn't buy fuel without protection money being paid to the Taliban, so that's what the US ended up doing: https://www.cnbc.com/2021/09/10/9/11-millionaires-and-corruption-how-us-money-helped-break-afghanistan.html https://www.cnbc.com/2021/09/10/9/11-millionaires-and-corrup... > According to a Pentagon analysis, 40% of the $108 billion that the Defense Department paid to contractors in Afghanistan between 2010 and 2012 ended up in the hands of either the Taliban, the violent Islamist Haqqani terror network, organized crime rings, transnational drug traffickers or corrupt Afghan officials.