Verifying references (thesis)
Guys – don’t do this as it causes pain!
Joking aside, I just thought I’d confirm a study from Deloitt (Wauld, C, on fuel usage (it’s steadily increasing to 22 gallons/soldier/day on average) with some figures from their Government Accountability Office and Congressional Research Service (should be pretty solid). But oh no, whilst 68 million gallons of fuel, on average, were supplied by DOD each month to support U.S. military forces in Iraq and Afghanistan (Solis, 2009) there were 188,000 “boots on the ground” (Belasco, 2009). Which means a paltry 12 gallons/soldier/day.
My only thought is that Solis’ figures somehow don’t include airpower. In which case they are hugely misleading as the figure should be much more (124 million gallons a month). All the more confusing is that I imagined that there might be more fuel requried (because of air/avn) rather than less.
Any thoughts?
References:
Belasco, A. 2009. Troop Levels in the Afghan and Iraq Wars, FY2001-FY2012: Cost and Other Potential Issues. http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/natsec/R40682.pdf accessed 9 Feb 2013
Solis, W. M, 2009. DEFENSE MANAGEMENT. Increased Attention on Fuel Demand Management at DOD’s Forward-Deployed Locations Could Reduce Operational Risks and Costs http://www.gao.gov/assets/130/121644.pdf accessed 9 Feb 2013
Wauld, C, 2009. Energy Security, America’s Best Defence. http://www.deloitte.com/assets/Dcom-UnitedStates/Local%20Assets/Documents/AD/us_ad_EnergySecurity052010.pdf Accessed 30 Jan 2013
Holdfast Training Services Trial Blog 
Chris
Two thoughts immediately present themselves: perhaps the GAO figures don’t factor in all the troops in theatre, just those on combat duties; or the Solis data isn’t taking into account all the fuel being supplied for ops i.e. a percentage is being bought locally or being given by host nation governments in lieu of payment for help. Where you have a disagreement of this nature, you need to either find a third set of data in order to be able to see if this shows whichbis the flyer, or have access to the caveats attached to the data that you already have so you can deduce why they are different. Are there any figures for British ops in the same theatres?
Jim
I’m still searching for figures for British forces, hopefully 170 will help on Monday. Otherwise I guess there may be someone in defence logistics with a better idea? You have to consider whether or not they are considering supply planes that refuel elsewhere, for instance (which I am less interested in).
There are a large amount of reports on the internet that reference the Deloitte figure. Others say about huge increases in demand: “…As Obama had US forces surge into Afghanistan in 2009 so ISAF’s daily fuel consumption rocketed from two million to over four million litres a day” (Gregory, 2012) but are not referenced against a number or a source.
Gregory, 2012. ‘Supplying war in Afghanistan: the frictions of distance’, http://www.openDemocracy.net
As an aside, your reply flashed up on my iPhone!
And 4m litres / post-surge 100,000 troops is only 40l or 9 gallons per soldier per day
Chris
Is there any way of getting in touch with the authors of the data? If you could get me an address, maybe I could apply some leverage to get you in the door to speak to them via the CI or Comdt.
Jim
I’ve emailed the guys who wrote the articles mentioned in my first post and commented on a few on-line articles/blogs. It might help if something comes from you guys due to your army email account – mine is either civvy or BP so can look a bit dodgy! I’ll give it a few days
I have also been looking into this, and it becomes quite political… (as Jim said)
ie what is classified as “in theatre” (cyrpus), do all those people associated & getting medals become the numerator, or only those actually in afghan
under whose budgets does it get paid for has an impact…
Does air power etc count?
I have some pretty good American figures and Army documents which attempt to break it down in the simplest way possible,but even so it is similar to the fully burdened cost of fuel (between $6/Gallon and $300/gallon), it really depends on how you look at it!
I’ll email you the Best docs i have about fuel usage. One of them has brief interviews with various military logistics people, each of whom come to a different number, funny but frustrating.
Ben
Rule number one – and Ben should have caught this sitter:
US gallons are much smaller (for a change) than UK ones at 3.785 litres rather than 4.546 litres. That brings the Deloitte figures down to 83 litres a day and the the DOD figures to 46 litres.
Finally getting something from theatre: the HRDC outside Camp Bastion recieves a combined total of 450m3 of diesel and jet fuel for the UK elements each day. Rather handily, for a figure of 9,000 UK troops in theatre (https://www.gov.uk/government/news/defence-secretary-welcomes-us-troop-reduction-in-afghanistan ) that is bang on 50 litres per soldier per day. This fuel also supplies UK contractors, but I have classed them as part of each soldier’s share, as if they were a heater, vehicle or anything else that contributes to supporting that person. For Ben – this includes all flights, both fixed wing (in and out of theatre) and attack/supply helicopters.
Man, I love Sunday mornings!