The Key to Afghan Pullout

Short-term priorities established by new U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta to withdraw combat forces from Afghanistan and eliminate remnants of al-Qaida will heavily depend on making investments in intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR).

Such capabilities also will be critical to a longer-term goal of modernizing U.S. forces to deter aggression globally, particularly in the western Pacific, Central Asia and the Middle East, where major regional threats are likely to arise.

Withdrawing forces safely and finding al-Qaida leaders begins with high-resolution, wide-area sensors continuously watching large swaths of countries from standoff distances. The only proven airborne sensor capable of performing these missions is the E-8 Joint Surveillance Target Attack Radar System (JSTARS) aircraft, and finding the resources to upgrade these capabilities should be an Air Force priority.

JSTARS has proved its worth in Iraq in the two wars there, in Afghanistan currently, in South Korea during the saber rattling by North Korea in 2009, and in Libya during the initial actions taken to prevent a massacre.

JSTARS alone has the capacity and flexibility to provide real-time ISR and battle management in a full spectrum of scenarios, ranging from precombat crisis management to full regional warfare. When a crisis erupts anywhere, the combatant commander first calls for JSTARS.

So, as Panetta and his military leaders build plans to achieve these objectives for both the short and long term, JSTARS should be the centerpiece of the ISR systems. Small, unmanned aircraft detect activity over small areas in good weather. JSTARS detects stationary and moving targets, even small ones, over extremely wide areas and during all weather conditions.

JSTARScan replace boots on the ground with its proactive, wide-area surveillance to detect trouble and enable safe withdrawal.

U.S. overseas combatant commanders frequently extol the unique value of JSTARS. Army Gen. Carter Ham, commander of U.S. Africa Command, which is responsible for operations in Libya, said JSTARS was integral to the success of early operations there. Commanders of U.S. Central Command have repeatedly referred to the unique capabilities of JSTARS and its vital contributions to the surveillance mission in Afghanistan.

The commander of U.S. Pacific Command requested JSTARS immediately when tensions rose in 2009 on the Korean Peninsula.

Yet despite these ringing endorsements, the Air Force has greatly undervalued JSTARS. It has long recognized the need to install modern engines on JSTARS, which are converted four-engine Boeing 707 airliners, to greatly reduce operating costs and increase capability. It is conducting a highly successful flight test program with new jet engines on the JSTARS test aircraft.

But now the service refuses to proceed with retrofit of the fleet, even though Congress previously appropriated the dollars to install the new engines on the first two production aircraft.

Instead, the Air Force is conducting an analysis of alternatives, due this fall, looking at new aircraft to perform the mission in the future.

Panetta also has strongly endorsed President Barack Obama's directive to find at least $400 billion in savings over 12 years while retaining the capabilities to deal with current and future threats. This is particularly difficult for the Air Force because it must find savings while funding three new high-priority programs: the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, the KC-46A tanker and a new penetrating bomber.

Another new program to replace JSTARS would be impossible to fund. Therefore, the Air Force must exercise extreme cost discipline in building its ISR road map. That means finding prudent upgrades to existing systems that already perform the missions well, such as JSTARS, rather than costly development programs for replacement systems that require enormous sums in the near term. The JSTARS modernization program fits this formula well.

Moreover, the cost of sustaining the current Air Force force structure is increasing and eating into its investment budget for replacements. Re-engining and replacing older, inefficient parts with lower-cost, modern commercial parts greatly reduces the cost of ownership for JSTARS.

Upgrading JSTARS is a win-win solution. It lowers the development cost to perform the mission and reduces operating and support costs during its life cycle.

Panetta and the Joint Chiefs of Staff have formidable challenges ahead in developing strategies and forces to withdraw from Afghanistan, eliminate al-Qaida and deter future major conflicts globally. Pressures to reduce defense spending will make them more difficult. A modernized JSTARS as the centerpiece of the ISR mission is the right way to start.

Retired Gen. Michael Loh, a former U.S. Air Force vice chief of staff and former commander of Air Combat Command. He consults for several defense companies, including Northrop Grumman.

France Says 1,000 Troops To Leave Afghanistan

FORWARD OPERATING BASE TORA, Afghanistan - President Nicolas Sarkozy said July 12 that France would withdraw a quarter of its 4,000 troops from Afghanistan by the end of next year, becoming the latest NATO power to downsize its combat mission in the war-torn country.

The French leader announced the withdrawal during a surprise visit to meet troops stationed in Sarobi district, northeast of Kabul, and to be briefed on progress against the Taliban by a French general.

"It's necessary to end the war," Sarkozy told journalists at the base. "There was never a question of keeping troops in Afghanistan indefinitely."

France has around 4,000 troops deployed in the country, mostly in Sarobi, Kabul, and in northeastern Kapisa province.

"We will withdraw a quarter of our troops, that's to say 1,000 men, by the end of 2012," he said. Those remaining in Afghanistan will be concentrated in Kapisa, where they have been deployed since 2008.

"The first group will leave at the end of this year," Sarkozy said, without specifying the magnitude of this "first phase."

That withdrawal will be "in consultation with our allies and with the Afghan authorities," he said, as "the situation allows."

The partial drawdown follows similar announcements by Britain and the United States, as Western leaders look to a final deadline of the end of 2014 to extract all combat troops from an increasingly deadly and costly conflict.

In Kabul, Sarkozy held talks with Afghan President Hamid Karzai, who was in a somber mood after receiving news shortly before the discussions that his younger brother Ahmed Wali Karzai had been assassinated in Kandahar.

Sarkozy did not rule out that French military advisors and trainers would remain after combat troops leave, "if the Afghan authorities want", adding that civilian cooperation would also continue.

"We must not abandon Afghanistan. We will continue to help Afghanistan. We'll go from military to economic cooperation," Sarkozy said after his meeting with Karzai before flying out of the country.

The French leader earlier met the top U.S. commander on the ground, Gen. David Petraeus, who will oversee the initial drawdown of 33,000 U.S. troops set to leave by the end of next summer - effectively ending a military "surge" ordered into Afghanistan, principally the south, in late 2009.

Britain has said 500 of its soldiers will leave by the end of next year. Belgium has also announced some of its troops will depart and Canada last week ended its near 3,000-strong combat mission in the southern province Kandahar.

It was Sarkozy's third visit to the battle-scarred country since becoming president and came two days ahead of the Bastille Day French national holiday. His earlier trips were in December 2007 and August 2008.

His trip came a day after a 22-year-old French soldier was killed in a shooting blamed on "accidental fire" by a fellow French soldier.

France has lost 64 soldiers in the course of the war, according to figures compiled by the independent icasualties.org.

Last month, Sarkozy said "several hundred" French troops would be withdrawn from Afghanistan before the end of the year.

His office had said earlier that France would carry out a progressive pullback of its 4,000 troops "in a proportional manner and in a timeframe similar to the pullback of the American reinforcements."

Sarkozy's visit comes days after that by new U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta and a week after a visit by British Prime Minister David Cameron, with Western leaders focused on efforts to draw down troops and end the long war.

Commanders are now preparing to hand over seven NATO-held areas to Afghan control starting in mid-July, although there is widespread doubt over the ability of Afghan forces to take full responsibility for their own security.

Sarkozy said he shared U.S. President Barack Obama's belief that security had improved since the killing of al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden in May and that the handover to Afghan troops and police was proceeding smoothly.

Should the situation improve, the pullout of all Western combat troops in 2014 might be "brought forward", he said.

U.S.-led coalition forces have been fighting the Taliban-led insurgency in Afghanistan since they invaded in late 2001 in the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks orchestrated by bin Laden.

U.S. Suspends Millions in Military Aid to Pakistan: Report

WASHINGTON - The United States is suspending or canceling hundreds of millions of dollars of aid to the Pakistani military amid deteriorating ties, The New York Times reported late July 9.
Citing unnamed senior U.S. officials, the newspaper said the move was aimed at chastening Pakistan for expelling American military trainers and to press its army to fight militants more effectively.

In the wake of the May raid on Osama bin Laden's compound, the United States recalled dozens of military trainers on Pakistan's orders, while huge tensions remain over a covert American drone war against militants on the Afghan border.
According to The Times, about $800 million in military aid and equipment, or over one-third of the more than $2 billion in annual U.S. security assistance to Pakistan, could be affected by the suspension.
This aid includes about $300 million to reimburse Pakistan for some of the costs of deploying more than 100,000 soldiers along the Afghan border as well as hundreds of millions of dollars in training assistance and military hardware, the report said.
Some of the curtailed aid is equipment that the U.S. wants to send but Pakistan now refuses to accept, like rifles, ammunition, body armor and bomb-disposal gear, the paper said.
These deliveries were withdrawn or held up after Islamabad ordered more than 100 Army Special Forces trainers to leave the country in recent weeks, The Times noted.
Some of this equipment, such as night-vision goggles and helicopter spare parts, cannot be set up, certified or used for training because Pakistan has denied visas to the U.S. personnel needed to operate it, the paper said.
And some of the suspended assistance is reimbursement for troop costs, which is being reviewed in light of questions about Pakistan's commitment to carry out counterterrorism operations, The Times said.

Report: N. Korea Paid Bribes for Nuclear Secrets

WASHINGTON - The architect of Pakistan's nuclear weapons program claims North Korea paid bribes to senior Pakistani military officials in return for nuclear secrets in the 1990s, the Washington Post said July 6.
The Post said documents released by nuclear scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan purportedly show him helping to transfer more than $3 million to senior officers, who he says then approved the leak of nuclear know-how to Pyongyang.

Khan passed a copy of a North Korean official's letter, which details the transaction, to former British journalist Simon Henderson, who then shared the information with the Washington Post, the newspaper said.
The Post cited Western intelligence officials as saying they believed the letter was accurate, but they said Pakistani officials have denied Khan's claims and argued that it is a forgery.
Khan - considered a national hero in Pakistan because he played a key role in the creation of the Islamic world's first atomic bomb - has long been at odds with Pakistani officials who have insisted he acted alone.
Khan admitted on national television in 2004 that he passed atomic secrets to North Korea, Iran and Libya, but he later retracted his remarks and in 2009 was freed from house arrest, although he was asked to keep a low profile.
Those secrets are nevertheless widely believed to have allowed North Korea to develop a uranium route alongside its existing plutonium weapons program.
The letter, dated July 15, 1998, marked "Secret," and purportedly signed by North Korean Workers' Party Secretary Jon Byong Ho, says "the 3 millions (sic) dollars have already been paid" to one Pakistani military official and "half a million dollars" and some jewelry had been given to a second official.
It then says: "Please give the agreed documents, components, etc to (a North Korean Embassy official in Pakistan) to be flown back when our plane returns after delivery of missile components."
In written statements to Henderson, Khan describes delivering the cash in a canvas bag and cartons, including one in which it was hidden under fruit.
Jehangir Karamat, a former military chief said to have received the $3 million payment, and Lieutenant General Zulfiqar Khan, the named recipient of the other payment, both denied the letter's authenticity to the Post.
The Post report could further heighten tensions between Pakistan and the United States, which has long been concerned about Islamabad's nuclear arsenal.
The two uneasy allies have been increasingly divided since the U.S. commando raid in May that killed al-Qaida chief Osama bin Laden in a compound near Islamabad where he had been living for years.

Canada Ends Combat Mission in Afghanistan

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan - Canada ended its nine-year combat mission in Afghanistan on July 7, closing the curtain after the deaths of 157 troops and signaling the start of further American and NATO withdrawals later this year.
The departure of nearly 3,000 soldiers, who took on some of the heaviest fighting in the southern province of Kandahar, comes as Western forces begin to announce gradual drawdowns of troops ahead of a full withdrawal in 2014.

After Canada spent more than $11 billion on the increasingly unpopular war, most of the Canadian soldiers have packed up and gone home.
A change of command ceremony was held at Kandahar airfield to mark the formal end of combat operations, although hundreds of other troops are being sent to work in a training role in the Afghan capital.
Afghan, Canadian and American national anthems were played to a small group of soldiers from each country, before commanders addressed the crowd and formally handed control of the mission to the United States.
"Over the years Canadians, both military and civilian, have made the ultimate sacrifice," Brigadier Gen. Dean Milner, head of the Canadian combat mission, said in his speech to the assembled troops. "Although there is still work to do, (we) are extremely proud of what has been accomplished."
Canadian soldiers first deployed to Afghanistan in early 2002, several months after a U.S.-led invasion of the country to oust the Taliban in the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks.
They arrived in Kandahar - the spiritual birthplace of the Taliban - in 2006 and have faced a tough fight to overcome a trenchant insurgency in the farming districts north and west of the main provincial city.
"The Canadians had a lot of challenges in Kandahar, not the least was the deep entrenchment of the Taliban insurgents in places like Arghandab, Panjwayi and Maywand (districts)," said Kabul-based analyst Candace Rondeaux of the International Crisis Group. "At the same time, they certainly were able to stabilize different areas of the province at different points of their engagement and were noted for their high level of civilian engagement which set them apart from other NATO forces."
The handover comes a day after British Prime Minister David Cameron announced that 500 troops would go home in 2012, and a fortnight after U.S. President Barack Obama said 33,000 "surge" troops would return by next summer.
France and Belgium have also recently announced modest troop reductions as the Western coalition eyes the end of the 10-year war.
"The picture's very mixed as exit builds," added Rondeaux. "It's difficult to say anyone accomplished the mission perfectly."
In recent weeks Canadian troops have been completing their final patrols, packing up dusty outposts and gathering at the giant Kandahar airfield military base to debrief before starting to catch their flights home.
On July 5, Canada handed control of their last district to U.S. forces in a flag-lowering ceremony, a key symbolic step in the drawdown process, although the Americans had been in place for weeks.
Public opposition to the war in Canada has grown, with a poll earlier this year by Vision Critical/Angus Reid indicating 63 percent of Canadians were against it, compared to 47 percent in 2010.
Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper pledged in 2008 that troops would leave this year.
After U.S. forces killed Osama bin Laden in Pakistan in May, Harper said he believed Afghanistan was "no longer a source of global terrorism."
A separate Canadian training mission involving 950 troops will work in Kabul with Afghan security forces.
Canada will also continue to give aid to Afghanistan, with its overall involvement between now and the end of 2014 expected to cost about US$700 million a year.

Afghan Drawdown Plan 'Unnecessary Risk': McCain

KABUL - Top U.S. lawmakers on July 3 slammed President Barack Obama's military drawdown plans for Afghanistan as "risky," unsupported by his military commanders and a threat to progress made in the last year.

Withdrawal at the rate Obama has planned on - including the removal of 33,000 surge troops by the end of next summer - "is an unnecessary risk and that is why there was no military leader who recommended it", Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., said during a visit to Kabul.

Joined by fellow Sens. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., and Joe Lieberman, I-Conn., in the Afghan capital, the trio spoke to media after visiting U.S. troops.

Graham described progress in parts of the war-torn country as "really stunning" but warned that "all the gains are still reversible".

"What I'm mostly concerned about is that the accelerated withdrawal of surge forces has created a perception that we are leaving," said Graham.

"Withdrawal is what the enemy wants to hear and our goal is to make sure they don't hear withdrawal and the Afghan people don't hear withdrawal," he later added.

Both Gen. David Petraeus and Adm. Mike Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, have said Obama's plan was more "aggressive" than they had recommended.

Obama late last month said 10,000 troops would leave this year and all 33,000 personnel sent as part of a surge ordered in late 2009 would be home by next summer, leaving a U.S. force of some 65,000.

There are currently up to 150,000 foreign forces in Afghanistan, including about 99,000 from the United States.

Obama has indicated a series of drawdowns until Afghan forces assume full security responsibility in 2014.

Speaking to CNN's "State of the Union" McCain also lambasted the U.S. leader for not providing adequate troops for the initial 2009 surge - "He didn't give them the full complement they needed. It was about 10,000 short, which then necessitated a second fighting season," he said.

"Look, I question whether this was the right decision or not, but I can't question the president's patriotism," he added.

Obama's announcement pleased practically nobody in Washington - liberals were left wanting more, Republican hawks complained he was going too fast, and top Pentagon officials felt snubbed for having much of their advice overruled by the White House.

The military case for the drawdown, with Obama saying the war aims he set in 2009 had been largely met, was also seen as highly political, as it foreshadowed the argument he will make to voters next year as he runs for a second term.

The Washington debate comes as the U.S.-led coalition hankers for a resolution to the nearly decade-long war, but amid dismal relations between the U.S. and its key War on Terror ally Pakistan.

The Taliban's leadership is believed to reside in Pakistan and the nuclear power is seen to use the insurgent group as a bargaining chip in any regional settlement of power, complicating Western attempts to broker peace.

"Until Pakistan begins to help, its gonna be very difficult," said Graham.

"So our job as members of the Senate is to tell the Pakistani military: You need to choose. You need to choose who you want your friends to be and who you want your enemies to be... Too much is at stake to let this drift any further."

Obama: U.S. to Pull 30,000 Out of Afghanistan by Summer 2012

WASHINGTON - U.S. President Barack Obama on June 22 ordered all 33,000 U.S. so-called surge troops home from Afghanistan by next summer, declared the beginning of the end of the war and vowed to turn to "nation building" at home.

U.S. President Barack Obama speaks June 22 in the White House. (Pool photo via Agence France-Presse)

In a pivotal moment for U.S. national security strategy, Obama also signaled in a 13-minute primetime speech that the United States would no longer try to build a "perfect" Afghanistan from a nation ravaged by generations of violence.

"We take comfort in knowing that the tide of war is receding," Obama said in the East Room of the White House in an address blanketing U.S. television networks at a time of rising discontent on the war.
"Even as there will be dark days ahead in Afghanistan, the light of a secure peace can be seen in the distance. These long wars will come to a responsible end," Obama said.
The president's speech came as domestic political support fades for the war following the killing of al-Qaida chief Osama bin Laden by Navy SEALs on May 2, and as Washington backs fragile Afghan reconciliation talks with the Taliban.
His decision on troop numbers amounted to a rejection of appeals from the Pentagon for a slower drawdown to safeguard gains against the Taliban and to allow a new counterinsurgency mission to unfold in eastern Afghanistan.
The president said that he would, as promised, begin the U.S. withdrawal next month and that 10,000 of the more than 30,000 troops he sent to war in an escalation of the conflict in 2009 would be home this year.
A further 23,000 surge troops will be withdrawn by next summer, and more yet-to-be announced drawdowns will continue, until Afghan forces assume security responsibility in 2014.
"This is the beginning - but not the end - of our effort to wind down this war," Obama said.
"We will have to do the hard work of keeping the gains that we have made, while we draw down our forces and transition responsibility for security to the Afghan government."
Although Obama said the tide of war was receding, there will still be more than 65,000 troops in Afghanistan when he asks Americans to give him a second term in November 2012.
Obama also argued that his policy of escalating the war against the Taliban and al-Qaida had forged substantial progress and had allowed him to commence troop withdrawals from a "position of strength."
He said that documents seized from bin Laden's compound in Pakistan showed that al-Qaida was under "enormous strain."
"Bin Laden expressed concern that has been unable to effectively replace senior terrorists that have been killed, and that al-Qaida has failed in its effort to portray America as a nation at war with Islam - thereby draining more widespread support," he said.
U.S. Army Gen. David Petraeus, the commander of NATO and U.S. troops in Afghanistan, and top Pentagon officials had asked for a slower drawdown through summer 2012 to allow them to solidify gains in southern Afghanistan and to mount counter-insurgency operations in eastern districts.
Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., said Obama's decision, represented an "unnecessary risk" and noted Petraeus and Defense Secretary Robert Gates had recommended a "more modest withdrawal."
But Obama's timetable may be too slow for critics who want faster withdrawals from a war launched 10 years ago to oust the Taliban after it offered al-Qaida a haven before and after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
Some of Obama's fellow Democrats and some Republicans are demanding a faster U.S. exit from Afghanistan, and questioning the huge $10 billion-per-month cost of the conflict at a time of deep fiscal pain.
Obama argued the surge had made progress towards key objectives he laid down at the start of the escalation, namely: reversing Taliban momentum, disrupting and dismantling al-Qaida and building Afghan forces towards an eventual assumption of security duties.
One official said the U.S. operation against al-Qaida in Afghanistan and Pakistan tribal regions had "exceeded our expectations," saying 20 of the group's top 30 leaders, including bin Laden, had been killed in the last year.
Administration aides also rejected criticism that Obama's decision would put recent gains in danger and increase the chances that Afghanistan will slip back into an abyss of deep violence.
Obama also placed the Afghan mission in the context of his wider foreign policy and war strategy, arguing he has removed 100,000 troops from Iraq and will oversee the promised full withdrawal by the end of this year.
He announced that a NATO summit to review progress on Afghanistan will take place in his hometown of Chicago in May 2012, alongside the G8 summit of industrialized nations.

Obama, Karzai To Videoconference on Wednesday

WASHINGTON - President Barack Obama will hold a videoconference with his Afghan counterpart Hamid Karzai on June 8, the White House said as the U.S. administration weighs a calendar to pull out troops.
The news came after Obama met for two hours with his national security team June 6 to discuss the war in Afghanistan and the situation in neighboring Pakistan, White House spokesman Jay Carney said.

The White House meeting in the Situation Room came a little over a month after U.S. Navy SEALs killed al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden at his hideout deep in Pakistan.
The killing fueled calls for a major withdrawal when Obama fulfills a vow to begin pulling out troops in July, a promise he made in December 2009 before deploying 30,000 "surge" forces to Afghanistan.
It also comes amid tensions with Afghan leaders, after Karzai last week issued a furious warning over civilian casualties, saying the U.S.-led foreign military risks becoming an "occupying force" if fatal air strikes continue.
A looming U.S. decision on troop drawdowns could include a timeline for pulling out 30,000 "surge" forces deployed last year, Defense Secretary Robert Gates said during a farewell visit to Afghanistan.
He indicated for the first time June 5 that Obama may lay out a long-term plan for U.S. troop levels over the next few years.
But Carney said Obama had not yet made any decision, promising any decision would be a "real drawdown" but would depend on "conditions on the ground."
He said the withdrawal calendar was not discussed at Monday's meeting between Obama and his national security team.
"The president has not received yet a recommendation from these commanders or the secretary of defense for a troop drawdown figure, that will obviously be a decision he makes relatively soon," he said, adding he did not have a date for it.
Carney said Gates briefed Obama by video on his visit to Afghanistan "in preparation for the president's upcoming videoconference with president Karzai which will take place on Wednesday June 8."
Obama sent 30,000 extra troops to Afghanistan in a bid to reverse a Taliban insurgency that has become increasingly deadly since the 2001 U.S.-led invasion brought down their regime, and vowed to begin a pullout by mid-2011.
A war-weary American public's opposition is growing and patience in Congress is wearing thin as the conflict approaches its 10-year mark with no let-up in sight from the Taliban insurgents and a soaring body-count.
The New York Times reported that Obama's national security team is pondering much bigger reductions than those discussed even a few weeks ago following bin Laden's death and amid concerns over the war's cost.
A senior U.S. official denied a Times claim that Obama is expected to announce his decision on troop withdrawals in an address to the nation this month, telling AFP: "There's not a speech scheduled or written that I'm aware of."
Roughly 100,000 U.S. troops are still stationed in Afghanistan as part of a 130,000-strong international force.

No Consensus on Cyber Attacks

The U.S. government still lacks a consensus about how to ward off and retaliate against cyberattacks, analysts said after a week in which the world's largest defense contractor and other companies acknowledged their computer networks had been infiltrated.
"Although Lockheed [Martin] nipped this attack in the bud, it's pretty obvious that the federal government isn't prepared to cope with the kind of cyber onslaught that it's facing," said Loren Thompson of the Lexington Institute, Arlington, Va.
Each government agency - and even the military services within the Defense Department - has a different picture of what cyber is and how it contributes to the mission, according to Charles Dodd, a cybersecurity consultant in Washington who has advised Congress and other government agencies.
"The biggest problem is they look at the data security and the way forward only as it pertains to their mission," Dodd said. "What they miss is that cyber isn't different. It doesn't change just because your mission does. How you use it does."
U.S. government computer networks are attacked about 1.8 billion times per month, according to a recent Center for New American Security (CNAS) report, and Dodd said the weeks since U.S. forces killed Osama bin Laden have seen an uptick.
So-called hacktivists tend to "stretch their cyber legs" following major world events - and state-sponsored entities are starting to behave similarly, he said.
"The techniques of both these groups are kind of the same," he said.
Lockheed Martin, the largest supplier of weapons to the U.S. military, acknowledged last week that its network had been breached.
In a May 29 statement, company officials said the May 21 attack was detected "almost immediately," and that no customer, program or employee data had been compromised.
The FBI is leading an investigation into the intrusion, according to Robert Butler, the Pentagon's deputy assistant secretary for cyber policy.
"The analysis on these activities ... is challenging, it's diffuse, and lots of different pieces have got to be put together," said Butler, who spoke June 2 as part of a panel at a CNAS conference.

Coordination Efforts

The CNAS report said deterring and preventing cyberattacks will require "stronger and more proactive leadership" by the federal government. It suggested the White House create an office of cyber policy.
The Obama administration is striving to get government agencies on the same page. In May, the White House sent a package of proposed cybersecurity legislation to Capitol Hill, largely dealing with securing networks and defining the Department of Homeland Security's role.
But federal officials and analysts said that more legislation is needed; in particular, stricter laws to deter cyber offenders.
"The penalty for cyber criminals [is] not adequate at this point in time," Rand Beers, DHS's undersecretary for its national protection and programs directorate, said at the CNAS conference. "We're going to have to fix that."
Dodd said those who use bullets or bombs face far greater, or at least clearer, consequences than online attackers.
"These groups are attacking these networks, and there's just no fear of retaliation," he said. "I think that that's going to start bringing these other more guerilla-style tactics from groups we haven't seen in the past."
The CNAS report agreed, recommending the government lay out a declaratory policy that explains how it will retaliate, at least in certain situations.
In coming weeks, the Defense Department is expected to release its own strategy for cyber warfighting. That document will create a framework for training and equipping forces, as well as call for more international cooperation in this evolving domain, Mary Beth Morgan, Pentagon director for cyber strategy, said in March.
Dodd said the fruits of the effort would likely become apparent only after a major cyber attack.
"There has to be a uniformed way to move forward pertaining to the threat, not how we use the network and not how we defensively posture ourselves, because these [attackers] are looking at things offensively," he said.
The CNAS report also recommends the U.S. strengthen its international cybersecurity agenda.
Butler concurred.
"We can make the greatest inroads on the international side with working to develop norms, understanding ways that we can help each other to think about a safe and secure, reliable cyberspace," he said.
Thompson said that since many of the attacks appear to originate in countries such as China and Russia, the U.S. should treat them as a national security challenge rather than a law enforcement one.
He questioned DHS's ability to adequately defend U.S.-based networks from cyberattacks, and opined that the U.S. National Security Agency might be better positioned for the task.
But Dodd said NSA lacks the resources to protect such a large number of systems.
Cyber tools, both defensive and offensive, remain among the most classified systems in the U.S. arsenal. DoD and industry officials frequently remain tight-lipped on attacks and their success, or lack thereof, that an intruder has achieved.
"We have a wide range of physical, electronic, computing and personnel policies/ practices to investigate suspected issues," said Boeing spokesman Dan Beck. "Boeing takes the security of its people, products and information very seriously, and we have systems in place for detection and prevention."
Similarly, Northrop Grumman spokesman Randy Belote said his company "continuously monitors and proactively strengthens the security of our networks, and is vigilant to protect our employee, customer and program data and systems."
But Dodd, the cybersecurity consultant, said he believes the defense industry has been "completely arrogant" about the capabilities it possesses and is not fully prepared to combat a state-sponsored entity.
"This is not the stage for arrogance," he said. "You've brought a stick to a gunfight, and you're arrogant about your capabilities?"
Thompson said, "Lockheed probably has the most sophisticated network defenses of any company in the United States, bar none … and even they had a problem. So what does that tell you?"

Top Al-Qaida Militant Killed in Pakistan: Officials

ISLAMABAD - A U.S. drone strike likely killed Pakistan's Al-Qaida commander Ilyas Kashmiri, in what would deal a major blow to the terror network a month after Osama bin Laden's death, officials said June 4.
The 47-year-old Kashmiri is one of the most feared operational commanders of the network that bin Laden founded and has been blamed for a string of high-profile attacks on western targets, as well as in India and Pakistan.
He has a maximum U.S. bounty of $5 million on his head, and Pakistani officials said he was the target of a U.S. drone strike in South Waziristan on the Afghan border on June 3, in which nine members of his banned group died.
His killing would likely be seen as a huge achievement in the United States after U.S. Navy SEALs killed bin Laden in Pakistan, itself feted as the greatest psychological victory over al-Qaida since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
A senior Pakistani security official said there were "strong indications" that Kashmiri had been killed, but that it was impossible to provide 100 percent confirmation so soon after the attack without access to the bodies.
The corpses were burnt beyond recognition and swiftly buried. Militants also barred access to the site of the attack in Ghwakhwa in South Waziristan, a militant stronghold despite a sweeping Pakistani offensive in 2009.
"There are strong indications that he has been killed in the strike, but we cannot confirm it and we are still trying to confirm it," the senior Pakistani official said on condition of anonymity.
Pakistani officials said Kashmiri had been in the area for several days and that all those killed were from his Harakat-ul-Jihad al-Islam (HuJI) group.
Senior security officials explained that confirmation would be difficult unless Kashmiri's family or his group officially announced his death.
"According to our reports, he was present here in this area. We have information that he has been killed but no one has seen his dead body," local administration official Naimat Ullah told AFP.
Another security official said two close associates who usually travel with Kashmiri, Amir Hamza and Mohammad Usman, were killed.
Kashmiri is understood to have been in the area to discuss strategy should the Pakistani military launch an offensive in North Waziristan, as has been predicted as part of the fallout surrounding bin Laden's killing.
Anti-terrorism experts have long described Kashmiri as one of al-Qaida's main operational commanders. He reportedly escaped a U.S. drone strike in North Waziristan in late 2009.
He has been blamed for multiple attacks in Pakistan, including the two most humiliating assaults on the military - a May 22 siege on a naval air base in Karachi and in October 2009 on the national army headquarters in Rawalpindi.
Counterterrorism officials believe he was the main coordinator of a terror plot targeting Britain, France, Germany and the United States, which was apparently in the early stages when detected by intelligence agencies in 2010.
Kashmiri's family in the village of Thathi in Bhimber district, more than nine hours' drive from Muzaffarabad, the capital of Pakistani-administered Kashmir, said June 4 they had not been in contact with him for six years.
"We came to know through TV. We don't know whether he is dead or alive," his elder brother Mohammad Asghar said by telephone.
A spokesman for Pakistan's umbrella Taliban faction said Kashmiri was "alive and safe," and had not been present at the time of the strike.
In January 2010, a U.S. federal grand jury indicted him for terrorism-related offences in connection with a plot to attack Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten following uproar over blasphemous cartoons.
Listed on U.S. and U.N. terror blacklists, Kashmiri was born in 1964 in Azad, Kashmir. He is about 6 feet tall and weighs about 200 pounds.
He has black hair and been seen with a thick beard dyed white, black, or red at various times.
He has lost sight in one eye, and often wears aviator-style sunglasses. He is missing an index finger, according to the U.S. State Department.
The June 3 drone attack was the ninth reported in Pakistan's border area with Afghanistan, branded by Washington the global headquarters of al-Qaida, since U.S. commandos killed bin Laden in the garrison city of Abbottabad on May 2.
The raid sent shockwaves through Pakistan's seemingly powerful security establishment, with its intelligence services widely accused of incompetence or complicity over the presence of bin Laden close to a military academy.

Pakistan Raises Annual Defense Spending 11 Percent

ISLAMABAD - Pakistan's government jacked up defense spending and government employees' pensions in a new budget June 3 that set a deficit of 4 percent of GDP.

The budget for the fiscal year 2011-2012 starting July 1 came as pressure mounts on Pakistan to launch a military offensive in the restive North Waziristan region, known as the hub of Taliban and Al Qaeda linked militants.

It earmarked 495 billion rupees ($5.7 billion) for defense, an 11 percent increase on the current year.

"We stand by our valiant men, who are laying down their lives to safeguard our country," finance minister Abdul Hafeez Shaikh told parliament. "The country has constantly been suffering because of the existing security situation," but the government was determined to improve the economy and provide security to the people, he said.

More than 4,410 people have been killed across Pakistan in bomb blasts and suicide attacks blamed in Taliban- and Al-Qaeda-linked militants since July 2007.

The Pakistani Taliban has claimed responsibility for a string of recent attacks against government security forces and has vowed to launch even larger ones to avenge the killing of Osama bin Laden, shot dead in a U.S. raid last month.

The total budget for the next year was fixed at 2,504 billion rupees ($29.1 billion), with a budget deficit of 850 billion rupees ($9.9 billion), or four percent of gross domestic product (GDP), Shaikh said.

The budget also provides rises of up to 20 percent in government employees' pensions and promises to bring at least 2.3 million new taxpayers into the tax net.

Pakistan has long defied Western pressure to end giant tax-dodging in a country where barely 1 percent of the population pays at all, as a corrupt bureaucracy starves energy, health and education of desperately needed funds.

The International Monetary Fund last year halted a $11.3 billion assistance package over a lack of progress on reforms, principally on tax.

In the wake of catastrophic 2010 floods that cost the economy $10 billion, Washington donated hundreds of millions of dollars and demanded that Pakistan's rich, whose lifestyles outstrip many in the West, step up to the plate.

Shaikh said Pakistani exports grew by 28 percent, an unprecedented rate, during the current fiscal year.

"We also hope that our remittances will reach a level of $12 billion by close of this year," he said, adding: "Our foreign currency reserves have reached $17.3 billion."

He said that the government had achieved some macrostability, checked inflation and begun to impact the growth rate.

Local newspaper The News reported this week that Pakistan had decided to launch a "careful and meticulous" military offensive in North Waziristan after a recent visit by U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to Islamabad.

But Lt. Gen. Asif Yasin Malik, the corps commander supervising all military operations in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, told reporters on June 1, "We will undertake operation in North Waziristan when we want to."

India Commits to Help Afghan Security Forces

NEW DELHI - India pledged to help strengthen the capabilities of Afghanistan's security forces after a meeting between the defense ministers of both countries in New Delhi on June 1.
Indian Defence Minister A.K. Antony "conveyed the government of India's willingness to work with the Afghan government in building the capabilities of Afghan security forces," a statement said.

His Afghan counterpart Abdul Rahim Wardak is on a three-day visit to India accompanied by a seven-member team.
Afghan-Indian ties have raised hackles in Islamabad, where the Pakistani government and military establishment has long considered Afghanistan its own strategic asset to offset the perceived threat from India in the east.
India last month pledged $500 million in fresh aid to Afghanistan, raising New Delhi's contribution to $2 billion, to be spent mainly on development projects.
India's military assistance has so far been limited to training Afghanistan's security personnel and investing in small infrastructure projects.
Any greater involvement of Indian forces in Afghanistan would likely face objections from Pakistan, India's regional adversary.
President Hamid Karzai's government has stepped up training of Afghan troops ahead of the scheduled withdrawal of NATO troops by 2014 from the country, where the Islamist Taliban has waged an insurgency since 2001.
U.S.-led international troops are due to start handing over control of security in limited areas to Afghan forces in July.
Wardak said ahead of his talks with Antony that Kabul welcomed Indian security assistance.
"We will welcome any cooperation in the field of training and helping of Afghan national security forces so that they are able to secure and defend the country," he told reporters, according to PTI news agency.
"There is a very genuine interest in strengthening our relations in all sectors including defense," said Wardak, the first top Afghan official to visit India since Osama bin Laden was killed in Pakistan by U.S. troops on May 2.
After more than two decades without influence in Kabul, New Delhi swiftly established ties with Karzai's regime after the 2001 U.S.-led invasion deposed the Taliban, which was allied to Pakistani elements.

Dempsey: U.S. Military Must Adapt to 'Viral' Events

LONDON - The man named by President Barack Obama to be the top U.S. military officer said June 1 that American forces must adapt to an uncertain world after the Arab Spring and the death of Osama bin Laden.
In his first public comments since Obama unveiled him as his formal pick for chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Martin Dempsey also admitted that progress at a national level in Afghanistan was proving difficult.

"The killing of Osama bin Laden was a great moment in terms of taking the leadership of al-Qaida and creating difficulties for that organization," Dempsey told the Royal United Services Institute defense think-tank in London.
But Dempsey underscored the idea that al-Qaida was in some ways a "leaderless" organization that might regenerate in unexpected ways after U.S. commandos killed bin Laden in Pakistan a month ago.
"I don't know that we have yet come to understand what his particular demise might mean for the future," he said.
Dempsey told an audience of defense chiefs from countries including Britain, the United States, China and Brazil that the U.S. military needs to adapt better to "viral" events like this year's revolutions in the Middle East.
"Here I think our imaginations are just beginning to touch the edges of what it might mean," he said, adding that so far "maybe we have not used our imaginations to the extent that we might use them."
He added: "What brought down Mubarak was Facebook and social networking, a leaderless organization that rose up and we call the Arab Spring. So things can happen much more quickly than in the past.
"So in the context of a viral world we are trying to build an army that meets requirements."
Dempsey said that in Iraq there had been "vindication" for U.S. efforts to hand over security to local forces, but in Afghanistan the "challenge has been and continues to be different."
"There has been enormous progress made at the tactical level but the progress has been harder to link together with progress at the national level" in Afghanistan, he said.
U.S. forces are due to begin pulling out of Afghanistan next month with a full handover from NATO to Afghan forces due at the end of 2014.
Dempsey, 59, who is the current chief of staff for the Army, will replace Adm. Mike Mullen if he is confirmed by a Senate hearing.

Pentagon: U.S. cutting back troops in Pakistan

WASHINGTON - The U.S. military said Wednesday it has begun pulling some American troops out of Pakistan after Islamabad requested a smaller presence, amid tensions over a U.S. raid against Osama bin Laden.
"We were recently (within past 2 weeks) notified in writing that the government of Pakistan wished for the U.S. to reduce its footprint in Pakistan. Accordingly, we have begun those reductions," spokesman Col. Dave Lapan said in an email to reporters.

There are more than 200 U.S. military personnel in Pakistan serving mostly as trainers as part of a long-running effort to counter al-Qaida and Islamist militants.
But the uneasy relationship between Pakistan and the U.S. has come under severe strain following a unilateral raid by U.S. commandos that killed bin Laden on May 2 in the Pakistani city of Abbottabad, home to a military academy.
President Barack Obama's administration has stepped up diplomatic efforts to smooth over the crisis sparked by the raid on the al-Qaida leader's compound, while some lawmakers in Congress have called for cutting aid to Islamabad.
Since the bin Laden operation, the U.S. has kept up CIA drone strikes on militant targets in Pakistan's northwest. The bombing raids are deeply unpopular and often draw public criticism from Pakistani officials.

Cable: Pakistan Officers Taught Anti-U.S. Courses

ISLAMABAD - A leaked U.S. diplomatic cable says that senior Pakistani military officers are taught anti-American courses at a prestigious defense university in the heart of the capital.
The cable, published in Dawn newspaper on Wednesday and obtained by WikiLeaks, is likely to fan concerns about loyalties within the military after Osama bin Laden was found living in a garrison city, possibly for years.

Then U.S. ambassador to Islamabad, Anne Patterson, wrote the cable in late 2008 in reference to the National Defence University in Islamabad.
Pakistan officially allied with the United States after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks in its war on the Taliban and al-Qaida, but has long been accused of playing a double game in supporting Islamist militant networks.
"Lecturers often 'teach' their students information that is heavily biased against the United States," she wrote.
Instructors, she said, "often had misperceptions about U.S. policies and culture and infused their lectures with these suspicions." She said some students shared those "misconceptions" despite sending their children to study in Britain and the United States.
In contrast, "students and instructors were adamant in their approval of all things Chinese," she wrote.
Patterson was left recommending increased opportunities for colonels and brigadiers "receiving biased NDU training" to hear alternative views of the U.S., and pushed for an exchange program for instructors.
Pakistan's military leaders were humiliated by the discovery that the head of al-Qaida, the world's most-wanted man, had been living possibly for years near the country's top military academy.

Pakistan Considers Naval Base Move After Attack

KARACHI - Pakistan said May 25 it was considering whether to relocate its Karachi naval air base after a Taliban attack killed 10 security personnel and destroyed two U.S.-made surveillance aircraft.
The assault on May 22 was the worst on a military base since the army headquarters was besieged in October 2009, further embarrassing the armed forces three weeks after Osama bin Laden was found living under their noses.

After the attack took 17 hours to repel, Adm. Noman Bashir, the chief of naval staff, conceded that a relocation was possible.
"When the Mehran base was established 36 years ago it was far from the population. But now it is surrounded by civilian populations on all sides, thus the security risks have multiplied," said navy spokesman Commander Salman Ali.
Karachi is Pakistan's financial capital and the assault was the fourth on the navy in a month after three bombings in late April killed nine people.
The city, which is used by NATO to ship supplies to Afghanistan, has also suffered scores of killings linked to ethnic and political tensions between migrant Pashtuns from the northwest and the local Urdu-speaking majority.
Ali said it would be impossible to relocate each of the more than a dozen navy bases in Karachi, but said serious thought was going into Mehran, the only navy air base in the sprawling city of 16 million.
"Relocation is a highly technical and cumbersome task. It is not a matter of days. The authorities are thinking about all possibilities and requirements before shifting Mehran elsewhere," said Ali.
Despite the string of recent attacks, the spokesman insisted that other installations in the port city were "safe and satisfactorily secure."
Pakistan's Defence Minister Ahmad Mukhtar, who accompanied the prime minister on a visit to China last week, said Islamabad had asked Beijing for help in building a naval base at its deep-sea port of Gwadar, west of Karachi.
China's foreign ministry said May 24 it was unaware of the request.
The Mehran base, about 10 kilometers from Karachi's international airport, was set up in 1975.

Attack Inflicts Severe Blow on Pakistani Naval Aviation

ISLAMABAD - The attack on PNS Mehran, the Pakistan Navy's main operational airbase in Karachi, has spectacularly underlined shortcomings in both intelligence and airbase security.

Wreckage of a P-3C Orion aircraft is seen at a major Pakistani naval air base following an attack by militants in Karachi on May 23. (Asif Hassan / AFP via Getty Images)

According to the Associated Press of Pakistan and the military's Inter Services Press Release, one officer and a rating are confirmed casualties, and two other personnel have been wounded in the attack, which commenced at 11:30 p.m. local time Sunday.

As the operation wound down, media reports here claimed 12 soldiers to have been killed.
The navy declined to give any further details of the operation against "a dozen" hand and rocket propelled grenade wielding Taliban terrorists who infiltrated the base and destroyed at least one aircraft.
It is thought to be a P-3C Orion, but the naval spokesman would not confirm this.
He said further details would be given when they could be confirmed after the completion of the operation.
The spokesman did, however, categorically state that there was no hostage situation, and no foreign personnel were present.
Confusion reigns however, as other media including the BBC have cited the navy as confirming there was a hostage situation and that there were Chinese personnel present.
It is thought any Chinese personnel present would be technicians connected with the Harbin Z-9EC ASW helicopter program.
Analyst Haris Khan of the Pakistan Military Consortium think tank said he believes the destroyed aircraft to be a P-3C, saying it had been "gutted." He also said he believes another P-3C to have been badly damaged.
Though the larger patrol aircraft are kept on the flight apron at PNS Mehran, rotary assets are usually housed in hangars, which officials have admitted were attacked.
He said the attack was a potentially crippling blow to the navy as nearly all its naval assets were based at Mehran.
"An additional naval air base has been under construction at Omara/Jinnah Naval Base since 2002, but has not been completed due to lack of funds", he said.
Visually, security at Mehran was tight, but having long been surrounded by an expanding city, it proved to be a relatively easy target.
Khan said he believes the "national security structure" is in a poor state, and the attack to be the result a long list of intelligence failures that have allowed terrorist cells to remain undetected in Pakistan's cities.
Unless this is reversed, he said, "terrorists will be able to mount such operations with impunity."
With the Taliban seeking revenge for the death of Osama bin Laden, further attacks are expected.

Pakistan Asks China to Build Naval Base in Nation

ISLAMABAD - Pakistan wants China to build a naval base at a deep-sea port in southwestern Baluchistan province, its defense minister said May 22, while also inferring that Washington was a fair-weather friend.

Ahmad Mukhtar, who accompanied Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani during a recent visit to China, said the request was made during the trip, when Pakistan thanked Beijing for constructing Gwader Port, on the Arabian Sea.

"However, we would be more grateful to the Chinese government if a naval base was being constructed at the site of Gwader for Pakistan," Mukhtar said in a statement.
The deep-sea port was around 75 percent financed by China, which Pakistan has been trying to draw in as a strategic partner, especially since the discovery and U.S. killing on May 2 of Osama bin Laden north of Islamabad.
The commando raid rattled U.S.-Pakistan relations, with American politicians angered at how the al-Qaida leader had managed to conceal that he was living barely two hours from the Pakistani capital.
Gilani and his Chinese counterpart Wen Jiabao have both made a point of lauding mutual ties, just as Pakistan finds itself under pressure about whether its security services knew where bin Laden was.
"China is an all-weather friend and the closest ally of Pakistan, and it could be judged from the fact that in whichever sectors Pakistan requested assistance during PM's recent visit to China, they immediately agreed with Pakistan," the defense minister's statement said.
India, however, has voiced "serious concern" about defense ties between China and Pakistan and said it would need to bolster its own military capabilities in response.
New Delhi's comments follow reports that China plans to accelerate supply of 50 new JF-17 Thunder multi-role combat jets to Pakistan.
Pakistan also last week opened a nuclear power plant in central Punjab province with Chinese help and said Beijing had been contracted to construct two more reactors.

India Worried By Growing China-Pakistan Ties

NEW DELHI - India views with "serious concern" growing defense ties between China and Pakistan, and says it will have to bolster its own military capabilities to meet the challenge.
"It is a matter of serious concern for us. The main thing is we have to increase our capability - that is the only answer," Defence Minister A.K. Antony told reporters in New Delhi on May 20.

The comments followed reports China plans to accelerate supply of 50 new JF-17 Thunder multi-role combat jets to Pakistan under a co-production pact.
Antony added safe havens for militants in Pakistan is another "main concern" for New Delhi and told Islamabad to "disband and destroy" all guerrilla outfits if it "sincerely" wants to improve relations with India.
The killing by U.S. commandos of Osama bin Laden, who was hiding out near the Pakistani capital Islamabad, has "internationally stamped the nation's position as the core of terrorist activities in the South Asian region," he said.
India has long accused Pakistan of providing shelter and support to militant groups planning attacks on Indian soil and has pushed the global community - the United States in particular - to censure Pakistan.
Nuclear-armed India and Pakistan have fought three wars since attaining independence in 1947, two of them over the disputed territory of Kashmir.
Antony declined to comment on remarks by senior Indian military leaders that India has the capability to launch a strike like the one the U.S. carried out in Pakistan to kill bin Laden.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has said India would not undertake such a strike.
But a leaked diplomatic cable published earlier in the week quoted India's home minister as saying in 2009 that India would have to respond to another attack on its soil by Pakistan-based militants.
Discussing the prospect of another raid after the Mumbai 2008 assault which killed 166 people, home minister P. Chidambaram said, "The people of India will expect us to respond," according to the WikiLeaks website.
Antony added that India may sign a contract to buy 126 fighter jets for its air force by the end of March 2012.
"This fiscal [year] ends on March 31, 2012. The deal can happen before that," Antony said.
Last month, India short-listed France's Dassault Aviation SA and European consortium Eurofighter GmbH for the contract. The deal, estimated at $10 billion, is considered the biggest of its kind globally in the past 15 years.
India has allocated 1.64 trillion rupees ($3.6 trillion) for the defense sector in the fiscal year through March, up from 1.47 trillion last year.
The budget is nearly double the 890 billion rupees in the 2006-07 year.

U.S. Explores Pakistan Supply Route Alternatives

A shutdown of the supply routes that run through Pakistan would pose problems for the U.S. military but would not halt Afghan operations, according to the Army's chief logistics officer.
"We would overcome it," Army Lt. Gen. Mitchell Stevenson, deputy chief of staff for logistics, told the Senate Armed Services readiness subcommittee during a May 18 hearing. "It would not stop Afghanistan operations, but it would be a challenge."

Several lawmakers have voiced concern about the U.S. relationship with Pakistan following the capture of Osama bin Laden. A key part of that relationship is Pakistan's permission for the U.S. to move supplies for Afghanistan through the country. If those supply routes were shut down for any reason, lawmakers wanted to know what would happen.
The Army keeps 45 days worth of fuel on the ground in Afghanistan so that operations can withstand severe disruptions to its supply lines, Stevenson said.
If the southern routes were shut down, the U.S. would increase its use of airdrops and flow more in from the north. However, that route takes much longer and is more expensive, Stevenson said.
Smaller disruptions already frequently delay the delivery of supplies. For example, a sit-down strike in Karachi is keeping supply trucks from getting to the port, Stevenson said. He expects the strike to last a couple of days.
Of the supplies it delivers by land, the U.S. brings in 60 percent to Afghanistan from the north through Central Asia and the Baltic states and 40 percent from the south through Pakistan. There, supplies arrive in the port of Karachi and travel over land by contractor-driven trucks.
The goal is to increase supplies coming in from the north to 75 percent, Stevenson said. "We're not there yet."
The U.S. relies on airlift for all of its "sensitive" and "high-tech" equipment, Stevenson said. This is due to restrictions placed on the U.S. by countries along the northern route, as well as frequent attacks on supply trucks.
To keep supplies off the roads, the U.S. also relies on a large pool of "theater-provided" equipment. The challenge there is that the equipment requires major overhaul and refurbishment about every two years. The capability to do that in Afghanistan is now available, the three-star said.
The Army is also experimenting with shipping more supplies to a nearby "friendly country" and then flying them into Afghanistan using C-17s. The Army is examining whether this route is cheaper in the long run because it avoids pilferage and other kinds of attacks, Stevenson said.
The general did not name the country. However, Stars and Stripes reported last spring that Bahrain served as a staging area to ship MRAP all-terrain vehicles into Afghanistan. The new vehicles were transported by ship to Bahrain and then flown to theater.