Rapid Fire Oct. 5, 2012: Russian Heavy (Shop)lifting

• The Pentagon has paid $188M in container detention fees that went back to 2006 in just the past few months, according to USA Today. Minimizing these fees is much more complicated than the article makes it out to be. Of course rent-to-own costs more than outright buying containers, but to get the full picture you also need to take into account savings from short-term origin-to-destination rentals that don’t get delayed and cost a fraction of owning said containers. And owning a bunch of containers so that they sit where you no longer need them costs money too. The complexity of military supply chains, compounded by a rocky container-shipping market, deserves better than simplistic answers.

• It is too bad Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Martin Dempsey is not commenting on why he is reportedly opposing the demotion of Gen. William Ward, given the seriousness of the allegations of personal spending out of government funds made against the former AFRICOM commander.