US spend $20.2 billion a year on air conditioning the desert

[Brazen]

No critique here, obviously very much required, but it's such an expense and risk to life transporting the fuel. Also, I wish I'd bid to be the contractor for that!

The amount the U.S. military spends annually on air conditioning in Iraq and Afghanistan: $20.2 billion.

That's more than NASA's budget. It's more than BP has paid so far for damage during the Gulf oil spill. It's what the G-8 has pledged to help foster new democracies in Egypt and Tunisia.

"When you consider the cost to deliver the fuel to some of the most isolated places in the world — escorting, command and control, medevac support — when you throw all that infrastructure in, we're talking over $20 billion," Steven Anderson tells weekends on All Things Considered guest host Rachel Martin. Anderson is a retired brigadier general who served as Gen. David Patreaus' chief logistician in Iraq.

Why does it cost so much?

To power an air conditioner at a remote outpost in land-locked Afghanistan, a gallon of fuel has to be shipped into Karachi, Pakistan, then driven 800 miles over 18 days to Afghanistan on roads that are sometimes little more than "improved goat trails," Anderson says. "And you've got risks that are associated with moving the fuel almost every mile of the way."

Anderson calculates more than 1,000 troops have died in fuel convoys, which remain prime targets for attack. Free-standing tents equipped with air conditioners in 125 degree heat require a lot of fuel. Anderson says by making those structures more efficient, the military could save lives and dollars.

Still, his $20.2 billion figure raises stark questions about the ongoing war in Afghanistan. In the wake of President Obama's announcement this week that about 30,000 American troops will soon return home, how much money does the U.S. stand to save?

Dollars And Cents

The 30,000 troops who will return home by the end of next year were sent to Afghanistan in 2009, at a cost of about $30 billion. That comes out to about $1 million a soldier.

But the savings of withdrawing those troops won't equal out, experts say.

"What history has told us is that you don't see a proportional decrease in spending based on the number of troops when you draw them down," Chris Hellman, a senior research analyst at the National Priorities Project, tells Martin.

"In Afghanistan that's going to be particularly true because it's a very difficult and austere environment in which to operate," he says.

That means most war expenditures lie not in the troops themselves but in the infrastructure that supports them — infrastructure that in some cases will remain in place long after troops are gone.

"We're building big bases," American University professor Gordon Adams tells Martin. The costs of those bases are, in economic terms, "sunk" costs, he says.

"We're seeing this in Iraq. We're turning over to the Iraqis — mostly either for a small penny or for free — the infrastructure that we built in Iraq. But we won't see back any money from that infrastructure."

Then there's the costly task of training Afghan security forces. The Obama administration has requested almost $13 billion to train and equip Afghan security forces in the next fiscal year.

<snip>

http://www.npr.org/2011/06/25/137414737/among-the-costs-of-war-20b-in-air-conditioning?ps=cprs

[garbon]

We already discussed this.

[Siege]

I have been out there with no AC.
The combat effectiveness goes down 80%.
While you are in a mission you deal with the heat, but when you get back to your outpost, and you have no AC, your core tempeture doesn;t go down, so the next mission will be that much harder.
After a week with no AC during the summer, you cannot concentrate, your situational awareness is almost non-existent, and you can barely process information and lead or follow, or comprehend orders.
It really fucks with your mind, body, and spirit.
Your motivation hits zero and are always day dreaming about home.

[Scipio]

I have been out there with no AC.
The combat effectiveness goes down 80%.
While you are in a mission you deal with the heat, but when you get back to your outpost, and you have no AC, your core tempeture doesn;t go down, so the next mission will be that much harder.
After a week with no AC during the summer, you cannot concentrate, your situational awareness is almost non-existent, and you can barely process information and lead or follow, or comprehend orders.
It really fucks with your mind, body, and spirit.
Your motivation hits zero and are always day dreaming about home.

The Bedouin doesn't have this problem.

Just saying.

[Neil]

I have been out there with no AC.
The combat effectiveness goes down 80%.
While you are in a mission you deal with the heat, but when you get back to your outpost, and you have no AC, your core tempeture doesn;t go down, so the next mission will be that much harder.
After a week with no AC during the summer, you cannot concentrate, your situational awareness is almost non-existent, and you can barely process information and lead or follow, or comprehend orders.
It really fucks with your mind, body, and spirit.
Your motivation hits zero and are always day dreaming about home.

The Bedouin doesn't have this problem.

Just saying.

"And then I realized they were stronger than we, because they could stand that these were not monsters, these were men... trained cadres. These men who fought with their hearts, who had families, who had children, who were filled with love... but they had the strength... the strength... to do that. If I had ten divisions of those men, our troubles here would be over very quickly. You have to have men who are moral... and at the same time who are able to utilize their primordial instincts to kill without feeling... without passion... without judgment... without judgment! Because it's judgment that defeats us."

[grumbler]

The Bedouin doesn't have this problem.

Just saying.

That's 'cause the Bedouin aren't doing the mission.  You don't have this problem, either, and neither do I.

Just sayin'.

[The Brain]

I tried watching The Mission twice. Twice I failed, defeated by boredom.

[Monoriu]

I have some doubts about the $20.2 billion figure.  Fuel must be used for a lot more purposes than to support air-conditioning, right?  That means, fuel needs to be transported to those remote locations, with or without the need for AC.  Is the $20 billion figure inclusive of all the costs of transporting the fuel (which is an over-estimate)?  Does it represent the marginal cost of transporting the fuel?  Or is there some allocation of the overhead costs among different uses?

[grumbler]

I have some doubts about the $20.2 billion figure.  Fuel must be used for a lot more purposes than to support air-conditioning, right?  That means, fuel needs to be transported to those remote locations, with or without the need for AC.  Is the $20 billion figure inclusive of all the costs of transporting the fuel (which is an over-estimate)?  Does it represent the marginal cost of transporting the fuel?  Or is there some allocation of the overhead costs among different uses?

Oh, the $20 billion figure is bogus, for sure.  But it makes for a nice headline, doesn't it?

[Razgovory]

I have some doubts about the $20.2 billion figure.  Fuel must be used for a lot more purposes than to support air-conditioning, right?  That means, fuel needs to be transported to those remote locations, with or without the need for AC.  Is the $20 billion figure inclusive of all the costs of transporting the fuel (which is an over-estimate)?  Does it represent the marginal cost of transporting the fuel?  Or is there some allocation of the overhead costs among different uses?

Oh, the $20 billion figure is bogus, for sure.  But it makes for a nice headline, doesn't it?

Of course.  It's 20.2 billion.

[Norgy]

It explains the overuse of "stay frosty" in Generation Kill.

[Razgovory]

It explains the overuse of "stay frosty" in Generation Kill.

I thought they just like Wendy's.