From Hard to Harder: Iraq Retrograde Lessons for Afghanistan

Abstract

The U.S. Army and DoD have been conducting redeployment and retrograde operations from both Iraq and Afghanistan for the past 11 years. Both Iraq and Afghanistan are unique with their own geographical, operational, and political challenges resulting on different lessons learned. However, many lessons from the Iraq withdrawal are being applied in Afghanistan. This paper will review the joint redeployment/retrograde lessons learned from Iraq and Afghanistan. The author proposes five recommendations to support the retrograde from Afghanistan, including: increase divesting opportunities, increase the rate of base closure, increase the monthly retrograde velocity goals, plan for a location to store residual equipment post 2014, and synchronize JOPES retrograde timelines with the commercial contract system for a coordinated retrograde common operating system. The author offers three recommendation from the retrograde lessons learned for potential application to Army 2020.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Apr 01, 2013
Accession Number
ADA592648

Entities

People

  • David Banian

Organizations

  • Institute for Defense Analyses

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • C4I
  • Human Systems
  • Weapons Technologies

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Afghanistan Conflict
  • Base Closures
  • Command And Control
  • Commercial Aircraft
  • Contracts
  • Governments
  • Iraqi-War
  • Lessons Learned
  • Logistics
  • Military Science
  • National Security
  • Security
  • Supply Chain
  • Teamwork
  • United States Transportation Command
  • War Colleges
  • Warfare

Readers

  • Aerospace logistics and air mobility.
  • Joint Military Operations and Doctrine.
  • Military and Counterinsurgency Studies.