High Afghan Exit Costs Force US Military to Contemplate End of Era

Yours for a low, low price

In July 2012, after protracted bargaining over American aid money, Pakistan reopened its roads – the so-called PAKGLOC in military lingo – to NATO traffic in and out of Afghanistan after their closure at the end of 2011. That is the theory at least, but the practice has left much to be desired. Pakistani customs routinely slow traffic to a crawl with clearance paperwork. Add threats of violence from local tribal strongmen, when it’s not customs on the Afghan side suddenly claiming a right to exit taxes, and you end with near-gridlock. Security concerns have led the Pentagon to stop using PAKGLOCs for outgoing traffic as of December 3/13 for an indefinite period. This has forced continued use of the Northern Distribution Network (NDN), at a much greater cost.

Faced with these prohibitive outgoing logistics, the US military has a big incentive to think hard about what it really needs to bring back for future use.

Japan Puts V-22, Global Hawk on Official Program Roadmap

Japan’s Mid-Term Defense Program

• The Asahi Shimbun reports that the new 5-year FY14-19 MTDP – pending cabinet approval – includes 17 V-22s and 3 Global Hawks. For reference: FY11-15 MTDP [PDF].