{"id":20269,"date":"2018-07-09T21:04:40","date_gmt":"2018-07-09T21:04:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/marinecorpstimes\/uncategorized\/2018\/07\/09\/heres-what-a-massive-spike-in-airdrops-says-about-the-war-in-afghanistan\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T02:03:20","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T02:03:20","slug":"heres-what-a-massive-spike-in-airdrops-says-about-the-war-in-afghanistan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/marinecorpstimes\/flashpoints\/2018\/07\/09\/heres-what-a-massive-spike-in-airdrops-says-about-the-war-in-afghanistan\/","title":{"rendered":"Here\u2019s what a massive spike in airdrops says about the war in Afghanistan"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Airdrops in Afghanistan<\/a> grew nearly ten-fold this year, as supplies were increasingly ferried out via cargo aircraft and parachuted into Afghanistan to sustain operations against the Taliban<\/a> this spring and summer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

More than 327,000 pounds of supplies were airdropped into Afghanistan by the end of May this year, with the bulk of those drops occurring in April and May, according to numbers provided by U.S. Air Forces Central Command\u2019s Combined Air Operations Center<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That number stands in stark contrast to 2017, when the Air Force dropped only about 33,000 pounds of supplies into Afghanistan throughout the year, but still far short of the nearly 11 million pounds dropped closer to the height of the war in 2013.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Officially, the Air Force said the spike signals an increase in combat operations against insurgent forces. Unofficially, researchers have noted the rise in airdrops coincides with the arrival of a new unit to advise local forces and increased insurgent activity along major highways.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAirdrops have increased in Afghanistan in recent months as Afghan and U.S. ground forces intensified their operations against the Taliban in order to pressure the Taliban into reconciling with the Afghan government,\u201d Capt. Mark Graff, an Air Forces Central Command<\/a> spokesman, told Military Times.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Graff could not expound on where the airdrops were focused, but did say supplies are not distributed evenly across the country. Some regions are receiving more attention than others. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
A C-130 Hercules airdrops supplies into Forward Operating Base Todd Bala, Murghab District, Badghis province, Afghanistan, April 15.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The vast majority of the airdrops took place in just two months.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In April, American C-130s dumped 135,840 pounds of supplies to Afghan and U.S. ground forces. Then, in May, both C-130s and C-17s dropped another 191,400 pounds of supplies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAlso, for the calendar year thus far, mobility forces have delivered 47,832 short tons of cargo to bases in Afghanistan,\u201d Graff said, referencing the more common resupply by runway of larger U.S. facilities, such as Bagram Air Base.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The distinction is that airdrops are more often used to resupply or build up smaller and more remote outposts, which heavily dotted Afghanistan before the drawdown in 2014.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While the airdrops are meant to \u201csustain operations,\u201d they are not \u201cspeed-balls,\u201d or ad hoc resupplies dropped to troops engaged in prolonged fighting and comprised mostly of ammunition and water, according to Graff.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, he couldn\u2019t go into detail about the equipment that was dropped, whether the supplies are helping to build new U.S. outposts, or what exactly drove the change in the past two months. <\/p>\n\n\n\t