LOGISTICS


FOCUS: AFGHANISTAN by Margaret C. Roth


Multiple commitments and limited access make for new lessons learned as the U.S. Armed Forces work on bringing troops and equipment home from Operation Enduring Freedom


E


ven as U.S. Armed Forces sustain Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF ) in the longest logistics operation in history, planning has begun for the


drawdown of troops, which President Obama wants to begin in July 2011.


It is a complex picture, made all the more so by multiple humanitarian responsibilities around the globe and political unrest on two continents.


By just one measure of activity, in 2011 alone more than 100 million pounds of materiel will have been airdropped into Afghanistan to sup- port the 100,000 U.S. troops there. It is time to start positioning to remove some of those troops and materiel from OEF, said logistics leaders from across the military services, who laid out the challenges ahead at the Association of the United States Army (AUSA) Institute of Land Warfare’s Army Sustainment Symposium and Exposition May 10-12 in Richmond, VA.


CROSSING THE BORDER


The U.S. military is looking for alternate routes to move troops and materiel into and out of Afghanistan, in addition to the bor- der crossings from Pakistan, such as the Torkham Gate, shown here. Torkham Gate, in the Hindu Kush mountain region, is the busiest supply entry point for U.S. and NATO coalition forces throughout Afghanistan. (U.S. Army photo by SSG Ryan Matson.)


It used to be that for a logistician in the Army, the expertise and emphasis were on deployment planning, but not much thought was given to getting home, said MG Kevin A. Leonard, Commanding General, U.S. Military Surface Deployment and Distribution Command. But Army Force Generation requires that deployment and redeployment be equally important, he said.


In OEF, he noted, 97 percent of Brigade Com- bat Teams are deploying on time, but getting home is more of a challenge.


Besides the sheer volume of cargo to be moved, an ongoing challenge has been diversifying tran- sit routes in concert with commercial carriers. Also key is maintaining and improving security controls over materiel in transit (See “Cargo Control” on Page 58.)


Just as lessons learned from the drawdowns from Iraq and previous conflicts influence planning


A S C . A RMY.MI L


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LOGISTICS


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