War Porn

War Porn is what the Major called it when he walked into our office. Our TV signal went away a week or so ago. No more news updates at work. So what to do with a flat screen TV and no TV signal? The solution was to hook into the Predator UAV feed. What the hell is the Predator UAV feed you ask? According to the Major, porn. The Predator UAV’s are unmanned planes that fly around spying on things. They look like a cross between a wasp and a glider. Besides the advanced cameras gear they also carry Hellfire missiles. The technology is fascinating. These small aircraft will fly at something like 20K ft and zoom in on a person walking down a trail or track a vehicle in a busy neighborhood. They flip between b&w, color and IR views. It’s amazing because the view doesn’t look like it’s from a moving aircraft. These things are so far overhead the picture looks like it’s from a stationary platform. Truly amazing stuff and pretty damn useful for battlefield info I suppose.

It’s easy o fall in lust with the technology here on display. There are cameras on portable towers that can read a license plate at 10 miles. Very useful for counting fuel trucks waiting to enter the base! Down Disney Drive from my office is the Robotic Repair facility. In addition to remote control tractors used for mine clearance there is frequently a guy out front testing a small remote vehicle with a camera on top used to investigate suspected bombs. These are all very cool toys that any 14 year boy would want. Some of these are pretty useful when used correctly. As it turns out the cool looking remote control tractors didn’t pan out. The five sets in country have been sitting for about a year. They are too slow for road clearance. MRAPS with high tech versions of WWII mine rollers work better. They could use them for mine field clearance but Afghans with shovels employed by the HALO Trust seem to have that wrapped up.

The latest high tech gadget for Bagram is a new power plant. We currently use a large number of leased diesel generators for our power needs. This is not the best system. It is dirty, loud, ugly, not at all glamorous or the slightest bit high tech. Worse of all it doesn’t meet the growing needs of the base. So, lets go with a high tech solution shall we? Why not high tech is always better!!! I know, turbines, we need turbines! So, let’s take a quick look at the cost breakdown for this no-brainer.
OK I am told we spend something like $20M annually to lease the current rigs. That sounds excessive! Owning our own generators should be an easy sell. You may ask what the cost is of the turbines. I could tell you that. Unfortunately, I would not be able to tell you the cost to purchase piston driven rigs. OK, perhaps I’m being picky. Lets look a bit closer.
Well it says the fuel will switch from diesel for the current generators to jet fuel which we have much more of. That sounds good. What, you say we currently burn jet fuel in our “diesel” generators. Oh.
Alright then how about the cleaner burning turbines. The change out of a gaggle of piston driven engines for greener, cleaner turbines should be a significant benefit. It will clean our air right up! That alone should justify turbines! Oops, I seem to have forgotten that the Afghans in this area burn tires as fuel to bake bricks. Well there’s that and the open pit incinerators KBR runs on the other side of the base. So, I suppose a somewhat lower level of exhaust will help even if no one notices the difference. Alright, lets cut to the brass tacks. These high tech engines will use substantially less fuel, right? Right? Please tell me I’m right. The original justification told me they would be more efficient!

I suppose my first clue that something was amiss was the request that we provide six times more fuel for these newer, more efficient, engines. A bit of digging and asking questions didn’t get me far. The initial request for fuel misstated our current consumption more than two fold. A new presentation for the turbines indicates they aren’t that wasteful… well to be honest the numbers are still a bit fuzzy. In fairness I won’t completely drive the bus over this project quite yet. I am yet hopeful these new engines won’t suck us dry of fuel. I still don’t like the math but from what I’ve seen the US military, the Army particularly, can’t cost analyze its way out of a wet paper bag. I think wet tissue paper would actually challenge them!
My worry is that this is an ill conceived project picked only for its gee wiz factor. I’ve seen this before. I expect I’ll see it again. But for now, I will sit back, watch, hope I am way off base on my own analysis…and continue to dig. A bad decision I can live with. An egregiously poor decision based on fake facts to satisfy someone’s personal whim? That decision I would have a great deal of difficulty living with. Time will tell.
Gee, hope I don’t get in trouble for writing this!