Thursday, October 25, 2012

The high cost of leaving Afghanistan


It looks as if withdrawing all our military equipment from Afghanistan - let alone our hundreds of thousands of troops - is going to be a monumentally expensive exercise.  Aviation Week has just reported on the likely costs.  A few examples:

  • Shipping a standard 20-foot ISO container from Afghanistan to Britain will cost between US $8,000 and $19,000, while moving it by air over the same distance could cost anywhere between US $16,000 and $50,000.
  • Costs to ship a similar container all the way back to the USA would be at least similar, perhaps higher.  According to Aviation Week, "The total U.S. military presence in Afghanistan has a footprint of some 20,000 containers of equipment, and 30,000-40,000 vehicles of all types".
  • Air Force transporters won't be able to handle so huge an airlift on their own.  Key civilian aircraft such as the Antonov An-124 (already chartered by the USA to move equipment to and from Afghanistan) are in short supply.  There are only about two dozen of them available for hire, and NATO nations will be competing with each other to charter them - along with Formula One teams, Chinese exporters and others who rely on their services.


If we work on an average transport cost of $25,000 per container (which is probably conservative), plus a similar cost per military vehicle, it seems the USA alone is looking at a cost of well over a billion dollars just to get our equipment out of Afghanistan - and that doesn't include the expenses that will be incurred by our allies.

Financial crisis?  What financial crisis?

Peter

6 comments:

  1. At this point, blowing everything up would probably be cheaper.

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  2. And, if they take video of the resulting (and awesome) explosions, they could show it on pay-per-view and make some money.

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  3. How about a very sophisticated Garage Sale?

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  4. ...and why would you assume that all that material would come back to the US? Lots of other places along the way where it might be useful.. just sayin' ...

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  5. $8000+ per container?

    Sheeeit! I shipped a car from Japan to Australia for $768.

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  6. Trains and trucks to a harbor, then put them on cargo ships. No need to fly much back except for stuff you have to absolutely keep secure. No-one's in a hurry to get the conex back to home base.

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