U.S. Prepares To Dispose of Military Gear in Iraq

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As U.S. combat troops withdrew from Iraqi cities in late June, Pentagon officials were planning the pullout of what could total millions of tons of military equipment. The U.S. Army already has begun sending units to Iraq to oversee the drawdown of forces and has briefed contractors to gird for sending home some 10,000 to 12,000 U.S. troops a month, starting in January. Some of their war-worn material will be refurbished and turned over to Iraq, some updated for duty in Afghanistan, and some packed away in prepositioned stocks. Other equipment will be stripped of its sophisticated gear - night vision systems, Blue Force Tracker battlefield identification terminals, electronic warfare and anti-IED systems - and scrapped. Pentagon leaders are now debating how much all this will cost, a figure that changes depending on how much equipment will be saved, and whether new gear bought to replace what's junked is included in the overall tab. One source said the total will be tens of billions of dollars. Central Command has been planning for months for the upcoming drawdown, including tabletop exercises, said Air Force Maj. John Redfield, a CentCom spokesman. "It certainly is an enormous task," Redfield said. "There is equipment that has to be moved out, there are bases that have to be turned over, and, obviously, there are 130,000 people who have to be moved out also." "During the drawdown, equipment now in Iraq will go to various sources," Redfield said. "Some equipment will go to U.S. forces in Afghanistan for their use there. Some will be shipped back to the U.S. Some will be kept within the theater as pre-positioned stocks for future use." Officials also are exploring what can be given or sold to Iraqi security forces, he said. The list of potential transfers ranges from M2 machine guns to Abrams tanks. All sensitive items would be removed from donated or discarded equipment, Redfield said.
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Disposing of Gear
As with any war, the Pentagon has been pushing equipment into theater as quickly as possible, creating what logisticians call an "iron mountain." The list of gear includes armored vehicles, ammunition, unmanned aircraft, anti-IED jammers, radios and robots, to spare parts that are vital to keeping an army on the move.Sprawling depots house everything from batteries and tires to armor plate and spare transmissions and other automotive components.Then there's the equipment that is at U.S. bases and barracks across Iraq, facilities that have to be emptied and spruced up before they're turned over to Iraqi authorities.And under agreement, the United States must remove from Iraq anything that the country's authorities deem as waste or don't want, a point that sources said will require negotiation between the two sides.
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Gear to Afghanistan
Some of the equipment will go from Iraq to Afghanistan."As you draw down in Iraq, you have some opportunities in Afghanistan to synchronize across Southwest Asia with the equipping piece of the material enterprise," said Maj. Gen. Kevin Leonard, deputy chief of staff for operations, Army Materiel Command.Some Stryker and MRAP vehicles will get repaired and sent to U.S. infantry units in Afghanistan."We are not just taking equipment out of Iraq. We have facilities set up to refurbish this equipment to make sure it is operational," said Maj. Gen. George Harris, special assistant to the principal deputy for the assistant secretary of the Army for acquisition, logistics and technology.The effort will involve Army Materiel Command (AMC) and the Army acquisition office, Assistant Secretary of the Army for Acquisition, Logistics and Technology (ASALT), which will work to streamline and coordinate equipment efforts.In some cases, key determinations need to be made regarding the best course of action. For example, should a vehicle be sent back to the United States to be reset for future use? Perhaps repaired in a forward depot and shipped to Afghanistan? In some cases, the best move is to repair and send vehicles to Afghanistan."We run interference with the DA [Department of the Army] staff and OSD [Office of the Secretary of Defense]," Harris said. "We try to make sure that the policies are synched with AMC and commanders overseas."Communication is needed to ensure the various commands are on the same page regarding equipment-related decisions.

ASIAN DEFENCE: U.S. Prepares To Dispose of Military Gear in Iraq

 

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U.S. faces logistics nightmare in Iraq


The U.S. military is grappling with a logistics nightmare as it starts to withdraw from Iraq -- how to move an incredible amount of weapons and equipment from 283 military installations across the country. The Los Angeles Times recently dubbed the withdrawal of most of the 140,000 U.S. troops from Iraq, with all their impedimenta, "one of the biggest relocations of military hardware and manpower in recent years." And as befits a logistics operation of such massive dimensions, snafus and problems abound. These include the political nail-biting of allies like Kuwait and Turkey balking at having this vast array of military might transported through their territory, or even stored there. he bulk of the hundreds of thousands of tons of equipment -- worth $16.5 billion according to the U.S. Government Accountability Office -- is likely to be taken out of Iraq overland through Turkey to the north, Jordan in the west and Kuwait in the south for onward shipping to the United States or destinations in the Middle East and Asia.


But, according to the GAO, the Americans do not have enough heavy equipment transport to ensure the smooth removal of more than 170,000 items of equipment moved into the Iraqi theater of operations since the March 2003 invasion. For starters, the GAO noted in a March 23 report, there is no central coordination unit to oversee the removal of all the equipment, which could require as many 120,000 shipping containers. "No unified structure exists to coordinate the teams and units engaged in efforts to manage and execute the return of materiel and equipment," the report said. Some of the U.S. equipment will be transferred to Iraqi forces. "If it doesn't make sense to bring it home, we're looking at opportunities to help the Iraqis stand up their units," said Maj. Gen. Kenneth Dowd, logistics director for the U.S. Central Command that oversees all U.S. forces in the Middle East.


Other materiel will be shipped to help equip the U.S. military buildup in the Afghanistan-Pakistan theater, now the main war zone against al-Qaida and the Taliban. But the Pentagon would like a lot to be transferred to military depots across the Middle East, particularly in the Gulf states of Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar where massive warehousing facilities are available, as well as Jordan and possibly even Israel. This equipment would be put in storage for deployment in future military operations in the region, mirroring similar equipment pre-positioning following the 1990-91 Gulf War against Iraq to liberate Kuwait.


"It will primarily be the big gear, stuff like MRAPS (mine resistant ambush protected vehicles) and tanks," said Dowd. "So we don't have to move and lift the heavy stuff." The military is not saying what's going where, or in what quantities. But in the past, Kuwait and Qatar have each permitted the Americans to stockpile enough equipment, including M2A2 Abrams main battle tanks, artillery and other gear for one heavy brigade. However, even with the specter of conflict with Iran hovering over the horizon, the Gulf states appear to be jumpy about allowing huge amounts of stockpiled U.S. equipment -- albeit without the troops to man them -- on their territory. Kuwait, for instance, has said it wants to limit the U.S. footprint on its turf and that only equipment for the defense of the emirate could be stored there even though the emirate still exists as a sovereign state only because U.S.-led forces liberated from Saddam Hussein's clutches in 1991.


In Turkey, Prime Minister Tayyep Erdogan, who opposed the 2003 invasion, said in March that he would be willing to allow the United States to pull out its troops through his country. But it remains unclear whether that will cover all their equipment as well. The GAO stressed in its report that the withdrawal would involve "a massive and expensive effort" that is likely to boost rather than reduce Iraq-related expenditure during the pullout and for years afterward. "Although reducing troops would appear to lower costs," withdrawals from earlier conflicts have shown the costs invariably rise in the near term, it said. It suggested no figures for this. But it stressed that the bill for equipment repairs and replacement, along with closing or turning over the 283 bases to Iraqi authority "will likely be significant."

ASIAN DEFENCE: U.S. faces logistics nightmare in Iraq