The Pentagon's top logistician says the outlook for Afghanistan is improving with the construction of more forward operating bases, airfields, expansion of ramp space at existing bases, creation of a new northern supply route and the introduction of new information technology to detect fraud and counterfeit parts.

In preparing for the Afghanistan troop increase, "We have been most focused in recent months on the build-out of additional forward operating bases," which now number more than 180, said Vice Adm. Alan Thompson, director of the Defense Logistics Agency. "A lot of the work has been related to getting construction materials and portable buildings purchased and delivered -- nearly 19,000 -- into the country."

"About 12 months ago -- working with U.S. Transportation Command and Central Command -- DLA was part of developing the northern distribution network of rail and roads entering Afghanistan from the north across the states of central Asian and the south Caucuses," Thompson says.

Central Command's goal is that all cargo to sustain the force in Afghanistan -- to date more than 6,000 containers -- will go through the northern route. The payoff for cooperating countries is that Central Command has mandated the purchase of some products in Central Asia and the South Caucuses to create enough economic effect that host nations will be encouraged to support the transportation of military cargo.

Among the supplies will be the latest, all-terrain version of the MRAP designed for conditions in Afghanistan, the destination for much of the production of 1,000 vehicles per month.

To keep up with the demand for fuel by ground vehicles, aircraft and helicopters, and to work around some of the lack of hard top roads, "DLA is trying to innovate with prime vendor contracts to leverage commercial capabilities all the way to the end of the supply chain," Thompson says. "That's going to be particularly important to the increased aviation assets which are big consumers."

Some 30-40 percent of the 180 FOBs are supplied by air and the number is growing. "I think that after the increase [in] additional forces and a predicted period of increased insurgent attacks there will be a decrease and more of the resupply will be done by ground. The challenge of air supply is enormous. It takes a lot of airplanes," Thompson says. "I visited an airfield called Bastion. It had a single runway. When a large transport aircraft came in with a mechanical problem, it blocked the runway. While that was going on, there was an emergency medical evacuation and they had to struggle to clear the runway for a medical evacuation C-17.

"The pull on DLA -- for additional runways, ramp space, communications towers and new FOBs -- is substantial," Thompson continues. "The demand on us to provide the construction materials for base build-out has been fairly massive. There is a lot of ramp space being added [to the existing airfields]. There are efforts going on throughout the country."

Fraud also is a target for DLA. "From accumulated lessons learned, we've developed [an] enterprise risk management system over the last 18-24 months to watch [fiscal] vulnerabilities," Thompson says. "An assessment team is involved in a deep review of contracting, particularly for the plus up in Afghanistan that has been going on for the last 18 weeks."

Counterfeit parts are also an increasing threat. "We have aggressive efforts to detect them," Thompson says. "DLA buys a large proportion of its spare parts from thousands of small businesses. The individuals involved in the fraud are in the U.S. These items are being described as manufactured in the U.S., but they are not. Some [of the counterfeit spares] come from China, but it's not the exclusive source. There are others in Asia. It's not selling defective parts. It's deliberate fraud."

Thompson spoke to reporters at a Defense Writers Group breakfast in Washington Jan. 26.

Photo: Boeing