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US$6 billion later......

From today's FP's Situation Report.  Wow!

"The U.S. Army is planning to leave about $6 billion worth of equipment in Afghanistan after 2014. The service is in the middle of planning a major "retrograde" that will account for the bulk of the vehicles, gear, and other materiel after more than 11 years of war. Situation Report is told that the Army has approximately 1.38 million pieces of equipment in Afghanistan valued at roughly $28 billion. Of that, it plans to bring home about 757,000 pieces, or about $21 billion worth of materiel, and "divest itself" of about 628,000 pieces of equipment valued at about $6 billion, according to Wayne Hall, an Army spokesman at the Pentagon. "We will bring back those items that will support the Army's approved force," Hall told Situation Report. "We will also bring home items with security trade restrictions." We're told the Army will leave behind in Afghanistan equipment that is obsolete, does not meet criteria to return home, or is not "cost effective to return."

The Army has about 28,000 vehicles and trailers that must be shipped out of the country, and there are another 90,000 shipping containers of equipment the Army expects to be recovered, identified, and repacked for shipment, Situation Report was told by an ISAF spokesman in Kabul. "In cases where the material is excess to the needs of the Army or transport costs exceed fair market value, the materiel will be donated or disposed of." The Pentagon is planning a VTC briefing from Kabul with top logistics brass on retrograde on Wednesday."


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