$400 a gallon

[Beerslayer]

The $45 for the bolt is in consideration for the fact that aircraft parts have to come from a certified vendor that gets the parts tested, has to guarantee the metallurgy of the bolt, can't be made in China, etc. It is an expensive process that is intended to guarantee that the multimillion dollar aircraft won't fall out of the sky killing the multimillion dollar person flying it because a fifty cent bolt stretched under stress and broke at an inopportune moment.

A contractor recently got jail time for selling cheap Chinese bolts for helicopters that were packaged as the real thing.

 

[Titanium Soldier]

yes they need to be US made parts, but 45$ is almost as bad as the 30$ zip ties we use to temp. fix things...

 

[greenjeepster]

There is a reason our defense budget is the largest in the world. On the other hand, in the last 9 years of looking at gov acquisition cost tags on various surplus items I can't really say that I have found much of anything that looked severely over priced.

 

[998Junkie]

For what it's worth...

Among The Costs Of War: Billions A Year In A.C.? : NPR

And if you are looking for a sleeping aide:

http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/natsec/RL33110.pdf

 

[kaziboku]

We pay about $5.00 per gallon of water in Iraq.

 

[goatijoe]

If i had one tenth of every penny they waited id buy all of us fuel and tires to keep our stuff going. I know a guy that was in the war and he said they went to move out and they had brand new cat D9 dozers and things with the seat plastic still on them and they left them there because it was cheaper to leave them than to take them. Now how much cents does that make god only knows how much those cost to buy and get there.

 

[Varyag]

The Hx channel gets a lot of thing wrong. The other day a show I was watching said that the top speed of a hmmwv was over 90 mph

That would be one scary ride.

I supposedly got clocked in a 998 at 85 going down snoqualie pass by an OC traveling from Yakama firing range to FT Lewis. It is possible with a long enough down hill grade.

When my 1SG got yelled at for it by the OC he laughed him off because he said it was impossible.

 

[wdbtchr]

Seems reasonable to me, After all it is the same folks that paid $10,000 for a hammer and $5,000 for a toilet set!

Not just a hammer, a manually operated inertial fastening device.

 

[CARNAC]

Average total cost of one gallon with all shipping and loss included in the equation. It's like the average total cost of keeping one soldier boots on ground in A-holeistan for one year is close to $1 mil a head.

 

[RodUSMC1962]

It looks like some one got their decimal point in the wrong spot.

 

[Ratch]

Average total cost of one gallon with all shipping and loss included in the equation. It's like the average total cost of keeping one soldier boots on ground in A-holeistan for one year is close to $1 mil a head.

I always wonder how they calculate things like that.

Do they take all money spent and divide it by individuals present for one year? That wouldn't be an accurate representation of the cost per warrior. You could drop $3 million in munitions whether you have 300 people or 300,000 people present and fighting.

Do they only calculate human support costs, IE don't count cost of bombs dropped but count cost of meals consumed and latrines built?
Do they count the cost of a 2 person dorm that's only housing 1 person as 1 person or 2 people?

There seems to be a lot of room to play fast and loose with the numbers with vague stat's like that. IE, are they counting the cost of meals thrown out at the end of the day as if it's a direct consequence of the number of troops present?

 

[Heath_h49008]

Think of it another way... funds are fungible as soon as the contractor gets them. If you are the US military... and you want to purchase something but may not want it on "The Books" for everyone to see... you might want the invoice to say "$3,000 ea for 10,000 aircraft screwdrivers, payable to Lockheed Martin subsidiary "X"" rather than have the invoice say "$30Million for research and prototype of Uber Stealth Aircraft with capability "Y" payable to the Skunk Works LLC".

Just a guess...

 

[Masada 5.56]

I dont think it like going to the pump and paying $400 for a gallon. Its probably figured the by the time the gov. gets it, processes it, ships it over, and paying all the peoples salaries that touch that gallon in the process it probably cost us tax payers $400 per gallon.

This sounds like the most logical explanation. Afghanistan isn't Kansas. It's not like running down to your local gas station and filling up. It's a war zone and everything in a war is expensive. Also, does KBR have the refueling contracts in Afghanistan? They did in Iraq and I'm sure that has to do with the overall cost per gallon.

 

[Ratch]

Supposedly, diesel is .70 per gallon in Iraq, don't know what it is in Afghanistan. We're not allowed to fuel our equipment with that, only American contracted fuel. Pretty goofy. I'm sure if there's a contractual reason, it's not for the benefit of the country as much as the benefit of the contractor. I'm sure the government contracts it for logistical reliability, but there should still be some clause about fiscal intelligence.

 

[Masada 5.56]

Supposedly, diesel is .70 per gallon in Iraq, don't know what it is in Afghanistan. We're not allowed to fuel our equipment with that, only American contracted fuel. Pretty goofy. I'm sure if there's a contractual reason, it's not for the benefit of the country as much as the benefit of the contractor. I'm sure the government contracts it for logistical reliability, but there should still be some clause about fiscal intelligence.

On the economy maybe, but I guarantee you it's not .70 cents for the .mil or contractors. And actually contractors don't pay for their fuel, they fuel up for free at the KBR fuel points. Things may have changed since I was there, but the last thing you would want to do is try to refuel at an unsecure location.. i.e. on the economy.

Just my