Commander says surge can be done quickly

The four-star general charged with getting additional U.S. forces and equipment into Afghanistan on Wednesday acknowledged the challenges of his mission but expressed confidence it can be done.

Air Force Gen. Duncan McNabb, commander of the U.S. Transportation Command, called President Obama's plans to deploy 30,000 troops to the landlocked country by the summer "prudent pacing," adding that the military successfully moved almost the same number of personnel into Afghanistan this year.

"You're talking about roughly the same ... numbers and roughly the same time," McNabb said during a breakfast with reporters. "On the positive side, we just did that. On the harder side is the fact that we're doing it starting in December -- December being winter, that [deployment] becomes harder."

McNabb, who last traveled to Afghanistan in August, said his job is to provide several options for using air and ground transportation to get equipment into the country. The logistical costs of the additional troops and equipment depend largely on which options are selected.

"Afghanistan is a little bit like the 14th Street Bridge," he said, referring to the popular route into Washington. "The 14th Street Bridge can handle so much [traffic] and at some point it gets jammed up. ... And, if you do this right, what you want to do is, you want to open up another lane and then you want to open up another bridge."

TRANSCOM now moves 50 percent of its cargo through Pakistan and another 30 percent through alternative northern routes, including through Russia, McNabb said. The supplies that move through the alternative northern routes are nonmilitary items, such as building supplies and food.

Meanwhile, 20 percent of cargo, including all lethal and sensitive equipment, moves by air, McNabb said. But that comes with a steep price tag that is roughly 10 times greater than the cost of surface shipments.

Despite its high cost, McNabb called air shipments his "ultimate ace in the hole" if there's a tough winter in Afghanistan. But he also acknowledged it would put a strain on the fleet, particularly the Eisenhower-era refueling tankers the Air Force flies.

For some urgently needed equipment, such as the mine-resistant all-terrain vehicles the military is buying for Afghanistan, air is the only way for shipment -- at least for now.

So far, the military has sent 236 of the M-ATVs to Afghanistan, at a shipping cost of about $130,000 per vehicle, McNabb said.

Generally, the military flies five vehicles aboard a commercial Boeing 747-400 from Charleston, S.C., to the region and then transfers the M-ATVs to a C-17, which flies into Afghanistan, McNabb said. One C-17 can hold three M-ATVs, and can unload them very quickly.

The military can handle air shipments of about 500 M-ATVs a month. Oshkosh Corp., the vehicle's maker, has said it will start producing 1,000 vehicles a month beginning this month. This pace eventually will allow the military to move some vehicles more slowly by surface transportation to the region and then fly them into the war zone.