Airdrops In Afghanistan Have Grown Nearly Ten-Fold This Year

Pallets of supplies land on snow covered ground during an airdrop in Zabul province, Afghanistan, in 2012. (DoD)

Military Times: Here’s what a massive spike in airdrops says about the war in Afghanistan

Airdrops in Afghanistan 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 this spring and summer.

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’s Combined Air Operations Center.

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.

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.

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WNU Editor: This tells me that the highways are no longer safe to transport supplies.