Inquiry Letter: Scrapping of G222 Fleet at Kabul Airport
Abstract
In December 2013, my office initiated a review of the Defense Departments expenditure of $486 million for 20 G222 aircraft for the Afghan Air Force which could not meet operational requirements in Afghanistan.1 The G222 program apparently ended in March 2013 after experiencing continuous and severe operational difficulties, including a lack of spare parts. During a trip to Afghanistan, I observed sixteen of the twenty planes in the G222 fleet parked unused on a tarmac at Kabul International Airport (see Figure 1 and 2). I was informed that the other four planes are at Ramstein Air Base in Germany. It has come to my attention that the sixteen G222s at Kabul were recently towed to the far side of the airport and scrapped by the Defense Logistics Agency (see Figure 3). I was also informed that an Afghan construction company paid approximately6 cents a pound for the scrapped planes, which came to a total of $32,000.2 I am concerned that the officials responsible for planning and executing the scrapping of the planes may not have considered other possible alternatives in order to salvage taxpayer dollars.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Oct 03, 2014
- Accession Number
- AD1140242
Entities
People
- John Sopko
Organizations
- Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction