At this phase, Afghanistan is a logistics war as much as any other kind of war," said Mr. Carter, whose formal title is under secretary of defense for acquisition, technology and logistics, in a recent interview.
Unlike Iraq, Afghanistan has no modern infrastructure. Critical supplies such as fuel must be imported. The country is landlocked and has just three major overland routes. Enormous distances separate bases and outposts. High mountains and valleys, as well as extreme weather, make air travel difficult.
And once we get supplies in Afghanistan, we face the challenges of supplying those far-flung outposts and units without adequate roads and no railroads:
In Afghanistan, it's become quite common to supply the many troops out in the countryside via air drops. When accuracy was needed for the drops (because of the presence of hostile forces or very rough terrain) a GPS guided parachute rig is used. A problem has developed in getting these GPS rigs back. The rigs are built to survive 20-30 drops, and even though helicopters visit the isolated troops periodically, and can bring back the several hundred pounds of equipment that comprises each GPS rig, there are still too many of them stranded out there. The army is even considering using UAVs to carry cargo, and to land and recover GPS parachute rigs.
This is becoming an issue as 30,000 more U.S. troops are being sent to Afghanistan, and most of them will be stationed in isolated bases in the back country. Last year, over 5,000 tons of supplies were air dropped by U.S. Air Force C-130s and C-17s. That's more than was dropped in all of 2007.
Is it any wonder that I consistently worry so much about our supply lines? That aspect of the surge is what disturbs my sleep. I don't want an American Stalingrad to develop.
