WTF ??? - 'U.S. taxpayers paid $486 million for Afghan air fleet. DOD sold it for scrap.' - WaPo

[WillyT]

U.S. taxpayers paid $486 million for Afghan air fleet. DOD sold it for scrap.
By Josh Hicks - WaPo
October 10, 2014




The Defense Department destroyed nearly half a billion dollars worth of defective Italian aircraft that U.S. taxpayers bought for Afghanistan and then sold the scrap for $32,000, according to an agency watchdog.

Inspector General John Sopko, who monitors U.S. reconstruction efforts in Afghanistan, asked Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel and U.S. Air Force Secretary Deborah James this month to cooperate with his review of the purchases.

In a letter last week to James, Sopko expressed concern that defense officials “may not have considered other possible alternatives in order to salvage taxpayer dollars.”

Sopko asked the Air Force to turn over contracting documents and records related to the decision-making process, and to explain what actions the department has taken to hold the aircraft manufacturer accountable. The manufacturer was a North American affiliate of Alenia Aermacchi, an Italian aerospace company.

The Defense Department spent $486 million to buy the fleet of 20 Italian-made G222 military transport planes for the Afghan Air Force, but the agency terminated the program in 2013 because of problems with performance, maintenance and spare parts that kept the aircraft grounded.

The agency sold 16 of the planes as scrap for six cents per pound, recovering a tiny fraction of the price it paid for the them. Four of the aircraft remain intact at Ramstein Air Force Base in Germany.

Maj. Brad Avots, a Pentagon spokesman, said the Defense Department destroyed the G222s to “minimize impact on drawdown of U.S. forces in Afghanistan.” He added that the agency strives to ensure responsible stewardship of taxpayers’ dollars.

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More: http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/federal-eye/wp/2014/10/10/u-s-scrapped-486-million-aircraft-fleet-that-taxpayers-bought-for-afghanistan/

[nc4bo]

1. What the f... indeed!

Yet it was perfectly fine to cut programs like SNAPS?!

[Maedhros]

2. Behold, the true purpose of wars of choice.

In this case, the transfer of half a billion of public money into private coffers.

And Congress just approved another half billion to fight ISIL. Same old song and dance...

[Initech]

3. Hey republicans want to know who the real people mooching off your tax dollars are?

Hint: it's not people on welfare or food stamps!

[Johonny]

4. +1

[Comrade Grumpy]

5. Don't forget the $7 billion worth of MRAPs we turned into scrap there.

Although, on second thought, I suppose that's better than giving them to the Podunk Police Department.

[bullwinkle428]

6. Rachel presented this story last week, and had a slightly different take.

She essentially stated that, yes, the U.S. taxpayers spent nearly $500 million for this fleet of aircraft as a "gift" of sorts to Afghanistan. At that point, the Afghan armed forces apparently didn't have either the ability or the desire to maintain them in a flight-worthy condition, thus leaving themselves with $500 million worth of paperweights sitting in a grassy field, so they decided to get what they could out of them, scrapping them for the 6 cents a pound.

I suppose that's better than just handing them over to ISIS.

K&R.

[bahrbearian]

7. They are airplanes, fly them back here.

they could have gotten 70 cents a pound.

[Octafish]

8. Where can Detroit apply to get its own Air Force?

Detroit wouldn't sell them for scrap.

[Retrograde]

9. And that's why Defense takes up half of the budget

Billions for expensive equipment that gets abandoned or given away (but not before the check to the defense contractors clears) while the VA struggles to get a modern bookkeeping system.