Holdfast Training Services Trial Blog

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