Page 2 of 2 Pentagon starts an Afghan building boom
By Nick Turse
FOB Dwyer, also in Helmand province, is fast becoming a "hub" for air support
in southern Afghanistan, according to Captain Vincent Rea of the air force's
809th Expeditionary Red Horse Squadron. To that end, Marine and air force
personnel are building runways and helipads to accommodate ever more fixed-wing
and rotary aircraft on the base. The two services collaborated on the
construction of a 4,300-foot airstrip capable of accommodating giant C-130
Hercules transport aircraft, which increase the US capability to support more
troops on more bases in more remote areas.
"With the C-130s coming in more frequently, more Marines can travel at a given
time and will definitely help Camp Dwyer and other FOBs and COPs (combat
outposts) to build up," says Captain Alexander Lugo-Velazquez of Marine
Light/Attack Helicopter Squadron 169. In September, the air force reported
completion of the first phase of a six-phase construction project at FOB Dwyer,
which will eventually include additional fuel pits and taxiways, increased
tarmac space, and the lengthening of the runway to 6,000 feet.
In October, according to government documents, the army also began soliciting
bids - in the $10 million to $25 million range - for construction of fuel
storage and distribution facilities at FOB Dwyer. These, like the
infrastructure upgrades at Bagram, are not scheduled to be completed until
sometime in 2011.
In Helmand, as well as Farah, Kandahar, and Nimruz provinces, between June and
September the Marine Expeditionary Brigade-Afghanistan alone established four
new forward operating bases, "10 combat outposts, six patrol bases, and four
ancillary operating positions, helicopter landing zones and an expeditionary
airfield". In October, defense contractor AECOM Technology signed a $78
million, six-month extension contract with the army to "provide general-support
maintenance as well as the operation of maintenance facilities, living quarters
and offices at two US military bases as well as forward operating bases and
satellite locations" in Afghanistan.
Defense contracting giant Fluor has also been hard at work landing lucrative
deals in Afghanistan. In March, the army reported that, in accordance with
President Obama's spring surge of troops, Regional Command East in Afghanistan
had tasked Fluor to expand four existing forward operating bases and, if need
be, build another eight new ones.
In Regional Command South, it was reported that "emergency work to expand eight
FOBs [was] underway after being competitively awarded to Fluor under LOGCAP
IV." This is the current version of a military program first instituted by the
Pentagon in 1985. It has been the key means by which military logistics and
supply functions have been turned over to private contractors. (The previous
version of the program, LOGCAP III, was awarded solely to Kellogg, Brown and
Root Services, or KBR, then a division of oil services giant Halliburton,
primarily in support of US operations in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Kuwait, and was
plagued by scandals.)
In Afghanistan, companies like Fluor are clearly digging in. Fluor, in fact,
describes itself as "co-located with the US Army in Afghanistan, where the team
coordinates, provides oversight, and implements Fluor's execution plan to
provide the necessary resources and labor to accomplish this mission" of
"providing multi-functional base life support and combat services support [CSS]
to the US and Coalition Forces in Afghanistan".
The company is "simultaneously constructing and managing the expansion of eight
Forward Operating Bases ... in Southern Afghanistan. This includes the
construction of an FOB to accommodate 17,000 to 20,000 US Military personnel."
Fluor, no doubt, expects to be "co-located with the US Army in Afghanistan" for
a long time. In July 2009, the defense giant was awarded a $1.5 billion
contract for LOGCAP IV services in Afghanistan; in October, the army reported
that the LOGCAP program was responsible for erecting 6,020 units of
containerized housing known as relocatable buildings, or RLBs, in Regional
Command South.
In July, under an existing LOGCAP IV contract, scandal-tainted defense
contractor DynCorp International, along with partners CH2M Hill and Taos
Industries, received a one-year $643.5 million order to "provide existing bases
within the Afghanistan South AOR [area of responsibility] with operations and
maintenance support, including but not limited to: facilities management,
electrical power, water, sewage and waste management, laundry operations, food
services and transportation motor pool operations", as well as "construction
services for additional sites". With an eye on the future, the Pentagon has
included four one-year options in the contract which, if taken up, would be
worth an estimated $5.8 billion.
Just recently, the Australian military indicated it was also digging in for a
long stay, announcing a $37 million upgrade of its main base near Tarin Kowt in
Oruzgan province, to be completed by mid-2011. As at other NATO facilities,
increasing numbers of US troops have been operating out of Tarin Kowt recently
and, in late September, the US-based company Kandahar Constructors signed a $25
million deal with the Pentagon for runway upgrades there, also to be completed
in 2011.
Speaking the language of occupation
In 2009 alone, after many billions of dollars had already gone into the
construction, expansion, and maintenance of US bases in Afghanistan, American
taxpayers were called on to pay for more than $1 billion in construction
contracts - and based on the evidence at hand, including those future options,
this may prove just a drop in the proverbial bucket.
All of this has been happening without a clear plan laid out in Washington for
the future of US military operations in that country, without a legitimate
national government in Kabul, and of course with no shortage of infrastructural
repairs needed at home. Americans curious to know much of anything about the
Pentagon's Afghan building boom beyond Bagram would have found little on the
nightly news or in major newspapers. It has essentially been carried out in the
dark, far away, and with only the most modest reportorial interest.
Forget for a moment the "debates" in Washington over Afghan war policy; if you
just focus on the construction activity and the flow of money into Afghanistan,
what you see is a war that, from the point of view of the Pentagon, isn't going
to end any time soon. The US military's building boom suggests that, in the
ninth year of the Afghan war, the Pentagon has plans for a far longer-term, if
not near-permanent, garrisoning of the country, no matter what course
Washington may decide upon. Alternatively, it suggests that the Pentagon is
willing to waste taxpayer money (which might have shored up sagging
infrastructure in the US and created a plethora of jobs) on what will sooner or
later be abandoned runways, landing zones and forward operating bases.
The building and fortifying of bases in Afghanistan isn't the only sign that
the US military is digging in for an even longer haul. Another key indicator
can be found in a Pentagon contract awarded in late September to SOS
International, a privately owned "operations support company" that provides
everything from "cultural advisory services" to "intelligence and
counterintelligence analysis and training" to numerous federal agencies. That
contract, primarily for linguistic services in support of military operations
in Afghanistan, has an estimated completion date of September 2014.
Nick Turse is the associate editor of TomDispatch.com and the winner of a
2009 Ridenhour Prize for Reportorial Distinction as well as a James Aronson
Award for Social Justice Journalism. His work has appeared in the Los Angeles
Times, the Nation, In These Times, and regularly at TomDispatch. Turse is
currently a fellow at New York University's Center for the United States and
the Cold War. A paperback edition of his book
The Complex: How the Military Invades Our Everyday Lives(Metropolitan
Books) was published earlier this year. His website is NickTurse.com.
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