Real cost of gas at Afghan bases: $400/gal.

A C-130 Hercules drops off supplies for U.S. soldiers at Combat Outpost Sabari, in Khost province, Afghanistan in March 2011.

/ U.S. Army/Pfc. Donald Watkins

Keeping American vehicles rolling in Afghanistan while avoiding the perils of hauling in fuel via ground transportation is costing the military big time.

Frosty relations between the U.S. and Pakistan - which led to Pakistan closing its border to Afghanistan-bound truck traffic- haven't helped, either.

The Pentagon is increasingly relying on parachute drops of fuel and other supplies to bases in remote parts of Afghanistan, and as Nathan Hodge of the Wall Street Journal reports, the military estimates such deliveries are spiking the ultimate price of a gallon of fuel to as much as $400 per gallon.

"We're going to burn a lot of gas to drop a lot of gas," Capt. Zack Albaugh, a California Air National Guard pilot with the 774th Expeditionary Airlift Squadron, told the WSJ. Albaugh would be at the controls of a C-130 cargo plane that drops pallets of food, water, ammunition and fuel by parachute to troops below.

Avoiding the dangers facing truck convoys on the ground, the Pentagon has relied more and more on air delivery of supplies. Six years ago, about two million pounds of supplies were air-dropped to troops in Afghanistan. Last year, that amount was about 60 million pounds. Estimates are that this year the total will be about 90 million pounds.

The added costs, writes WSJ's Hodge, represent the "fully burdened" costs of fuel, and are driving the military's efforts to improve energy efficiency at its bases (by using renewable energy sources like wind and solar) and on its aircraft (by developing a fleet that can run in biofuels).

For more on the high cost of supplying the military in Afghanstan, read the Wall Street Journal report.

[FL_Son]

We need to consider how long China can afford to lend us the money to buy $400/gal gas. What if we miss one of our Chinese Mastercard payments and they cut us off ?
Empires fall to bankruptcy since their pride won't allow them to face realities. Sound like any country you know ?

[RichZubaty]

Thanks for this report. This is insane. Bring these troops home now. We cannot afford this any longer.

[dudelookslikeachimp]

Yes withdrawing troops from a political lost cause (lost domestically) gets more and more expensive the few troop that remain. Supply lines become more and more exposed and the ROE becomes more and more restrictive.

Just surprised no liberal activists have called for abandoning the last troops due to excessive costs of retrieving "war criminals". Actually sort of surprised some forward looking warhawks (setup political whiplash effect) are not subtly pretending to knuckle under to some liberal cries to just execute the last troops by aerial bombing as a cost saving measure.

[oldman67]

Most taxpayers don't seem to mind.Even though on Sept.10 2001 Donald Rumsfeld announced to congress that the Pentagon couldn't account for $2.3 trillion dollars. The Pentagon Inspector General reported that th military could not account for 25% of what it spends. On May 18 2001 the department of defense said it had lost 56 airplanes, 32 tanks and 36 Javelin Missile Command launchers. The $2.3 trillion dollars was forgotten the next day when American Airlines hit the part of the Pentagon where the civilian accountants, bookkeeper and analyst were sitting at their desk resulting in the death of 36 employees.The Office of resources Service Washington. Had they not died, they may have found out where $2.3 trillion went.The Federal Reserve seems to alway be losing taxpayers money or the military, equipment. Oh! Well! They will just raise our taxes and print more money so we can pay interest on that money later.

[lucifersshadow]

I'm getting awfully tired of my hard-earned tax dollars being wasted on stupid sh*&% like this. Then people wonder why we are in debt up to our ears, our infrastructure is crumbling, and no one seem to have a job. The democrats have proven to be no smarter than Bush on this issue, and, it is obvious that we need to get tough with the politicians that run this country, and boot them the h*%$ out of office.

[tsigili]

So.......cut off all aid to Pakistan to pay for it.

[Pred3]

Plus a 20% surcharge on the rich in PAK

[rightbehind]

For what has been spent on these two corporate wars we could have put solar power on 1 of every 3 single family homes in the United States. Just think of all the jobs that would have been created. When will the conservative nightmare end?

[rightbehind]

A war that has been privatised is not winnable. We insult our troops with private contractors and risk their lives keeping the contractor cash cow alive. Many of those contractors make 5 times more than our troops and are better equipped. I would rather up the pay for our troops and maybe more would join the military rather than line the pockets of these private contractors. We could have more eyes on the enemy instead of using our troops as baracades to protect contractors.

[webdepot]

Solution to this outrageous expense is simple... bring our troops home now and let the locals kill each other..

[thechooch1]

Yep we should have finished this off when we had the chance but instead pulled the troops and invaded Iraq.

[cannuc]

Einstein has a famous quote, insanity is to do th same thing over and over again and expect different results. That being said, may we point out a recent development regarding, the original automobile engine Steam power. As recently 2003 the VW co in cooperation with a co called enginion built and installed in a car the EZE03.
The beauty of this new modern day engine is that not it uses steam, but also recycled its exaust. It used no oil at all, 3 cylinders with an output of 850# thrust at 0 revolution. Now then Why with all the inteligence available to the armed forces, don't they apply this little gem to work? Let us make it easier Here is a link to see the engine in motion... http://abrahamsays.blogspot.com/2011/05/secret-steam-powered-car.html

[PatDaddy67]

So, the issues with a steam (external combustion) care as follows: It takes time to warm up and generate steam pressure to drive. A lot of energy is wasted on hotel loads if you leave the boiler running while in the store, etc... To get high efficiency, you need high boiler pressure (600-1200#) which is like driving a bomb around should you get into an accident and rupture the boiler. I'm not saying that it cannot be done, but it is clearly not for everyone. There are benefits. If you can run the boiler pressure high enough and exhaust to a low pressure condensing system, the thermal efficiency can be quite high. Unfortunately, this type of system weighs a lot and is better suited for a stationary plant.

[PatDaddy67]

care = car