Next time you’re sitting at the DFAC in Balad, sipping a Rip It, scarfing a cheeseburger served by a Sri Lankan, relaxing in the air conditioning and avoiding walking into the blast furnace that is the Iraqi climate, just keep this in mind: You’re the reason there are no more Space Shuttle flights. Well, maybe. The former chief logistician in Iraq told National Public Radio that the military spends more than $20 billion annually on air conditioning for troops in Iraq and Afghanistan. That cost, the network notes, is larger than NASA’s budget. Of course, cool air alone doesn’t really…
Browsing: afghanistan
Everywhere senior military officials speak, one topic tends to keep coming up again and again: money. Everyone expects the Defense Department’s budget to shrink in the coming years. Defense Secretary Robert Gates has already unveiled a plan to slow the rate of growth in the Pentagon budget. Lawmakers in Washington argue over how to best cut the deficit and reduce the debt. For the Air Force, this will almost certainly mean doing more with less. Fewer aircraft. Less people. Older equipment. With that in mind, Bloomberg had a good reminder of where a lot of the money has been going…
Think of it as the scenic route to Afghanistan – and one that can save you a few days at home. A C-5M flying from the Delaware to Bagram Air Base flew nonstop in a route that took the Super Galaxy over the U.S., Canada, the Arctic, Russia and Kyrgystan – the first time in Air Force history such a route has been used, according to the service. (This is the part where usually someone would make a joke about a C-5A breaking down halfway through the mission, stranding its crew somewhere near the North Pole.) The mission was a…
