Warfighter Support: Preliminary Observations on DOD's Progress and Challenges in Distributing Supplies and Equipment to Afghanistan

In fiscal year 2009, the Department of Defense DoD reported that it spent 4 billion to move troops and materiel into Afghanistan, a mountainous, arid, land-locked country with few roads, no railway, and only four airports with paved runways over 3,000 meters. The terrain and weather in Afghanistan and surrounding countries pose further challenges to transporting supplies and equipment. In December 2009, the President announced that an additional 30,000 U.S. troops will be sent to Afghanistan by August 2010. Todays testimony discusses GAOs preliminary observations drawn from ongoing work reviewing DoDs logistics efforts supporting operations in Afghanistan, including the following 1 the organizations involved and routes and methods used to transport supplies and equipment into and around Afghanistan 2 steps DoD has taken to improve its distribution process, based on lessons learned from prior operations and 3 challenges affecting DoDs ability to distribute supplies and equipment within Afghanistan, and its efforts to mitigate them. In conducting its audit work, GAO examined DoD guidance and other documentation relating to the processes of transporting supplies and equipment to Afghanistan and met with various cognizant officials and commanders in the United States, Afghanistan, Kuwait, and Qatar.