EXIT STRATEGY


ALL–TERRAIN OPERATION Afghanistan’s mountainous terrain and rough roads make retrograde challenging. Here, a convoy with members of Task Force 2-28, 172nd Infantry Brigade and the Afghan National Army heads back to FOB Orgun-E in Paktika province, Afghanistan, Sept. 17. (U.S. Army photo by SPC Ken Scar, 7th Mobile Public Affairs Detachment)


constraints pose additional difficulties in transporting retrograde cargo through the northern routes. Because of these restrictions, SDDC officials said the NDN currently is used primarily to bring in sustainment cargo.


Wadyko added that although it costs three to four times more to take cargo through the NDN versus the PAKGLOC, it’s still significantly cheaper than air transport.


All told, Baca said the transporta- tion costs associated with moving all the equipment out of Afghanistan are estimated at about $6 billion. “Tat number can potentially move up or down, depending on what routes are available to us coming out of Afghani- stan,” he added. “If we have to fly a lot of cargo out, that number will probably go up, and if we can use the PAKGLOC


and go to vessels, the number could go down.”


BEST-VALUE TRANSPORT No matter which route is used, Baca said they know it will be expensive to bring cargo out of Afghanistan. However, by using a new approach to logistics called Velocity Volume Distribution Retrograde (V2DR), he said, the command can off- set that cost once the cargo reaches the stateside seaports. (See related article on Page 56.)


Essentially, V2DR is designed to balance the volume of cargo with the velocity at which the cargo needs to travel. It does this by identifying early what cargo is being shipped and which routes and modes of transportation will be used to expedite the movement of cargo out of Afghanistan. Additionally, V2DR


extends the retrograde delivery win- dow from 10 to 21 days, which allows for aggregation of cargo at stateside ports and, in turn, for best-value rout- ing decisions (e.g., trains versus trucks) on how to move the cargo to its final U.S. destination.


“When the cargo comes across the ocean and gets to the United States,” Baca said,


“we plan to use the volume concept to move as much cargo as we can by train. If you’re going over 300 miles, it’s cheaper to move large amounts of cargo by train than by truck. We want to aggregate as much cargo as we can at the U.S. ports, move it by train to its final destination and save more money doing it.


“When we were leaving Iraq, we were for- tunate to have Kuwait,” Baca added. “As long as we got the stuff across the border


54


Army AL&T Magazine


October–December 2013


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