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September 23rd, 2017 
Awake Goy 
nsnbc : The United States’ Department of Defense a.k.a. Pentagon has approved another major contract aimed to equip Afghanistan’s national defense and security forces. The approval of the contract is part of efforts by the Afghan government and by NATO members operating in the country to boost the capabilities of the Afghan forces.
The new contract approved by Pentagon is a multi-million dollar contract for the procurement of thousands of modern Humvee type armored personnel carriers. “AM General LLC, South Bend, Indiana, has been awarded a $45,889,120 firm-fixed-price Foreign Military Sales (Afghanistan) contract for the procurement of 6,576 supplemental M1151A1B1 High Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicles, Expanded Capacity Vehicles,” Pentagon said in a statement.
The statement further added that the contract also includes procurement of capability expansion kits for the Afghan National Defense Security Forces. However, no further details have been given in this regard in the Pentagon release. In the meantime, the Pentagon said work will be performed in South Bend, Indiana, with an estimated completion date of August 31, 2018. Fiscal 2017 other funds in the amount of $45,889,120 were obligated at the time of the award.
The vehicles are only part of an effort to modernize the Afghan military and security forces, upgrade their capabilities, cooperation capabilities in joint efforts with NATO forces, and ultimately, to become capable of maintaining the country’s defense and security without relying overly on international forces.
Last week the first batch of the UH-60 Black Hawk helicopters for the Afghan Air Force arrived in the country’s southern Kandahar province as one of the first steps in modernizing the Afghan Air Force and make it less dependent on international military support. The NATO-led Resolute Support Mission in Afghanistan informed regarding the arrival of the first Black Hawks. In a short statement posted online, the alliance said “The first Afghan Air Force UH-60s arrived today at Kandahar Air Field. The AAF is transitioning from the Mi-17 to the UH-60 as part of recapitalization efforts to modernize the helicopter fleet.”
The statement further added “Recapitalization will provide the means to further develop professional, capable and sustainable Afghan Air Power.” The alliance had earlier said “The first of 4 UH-60’s has completed its final technical evaluations and will be delivered to the Afghan Air Force in September.” The Afghan government and the country’s international allies including US and NATO have stepped up efforts to bolster the capabilities of the Afghan force and Air Force. The commander of the United States Central Command General Joseph L. Votel requested the US Congress to approve the budget for the Afghan forces Blackhawk program.
In his statement before the Senate Armed Services Committee earlier in March this year, Gen. Votel informed regarding the significant capability gaps in Afghan Air Force and said “The DoD-request of $814.5M for FY17 for the first year of our plan to recapitalize the Afghan fleet provides funding to procure 53 UH-60s, with refurbishment and modification of the first 18; 30 additional armed MD-530F helicopters; 6 additional A-29 attack aircraft; and five AC-208s.” He also added that the requested FY2017 Afghan Security Forces Fund (ASFF) budget, including the 23 additional funds for the first year of this proposed aviation initiative, went to Congress on 10 Nov 2016.
F/AK – nsnbc 23.09.2017
Source Article from https://nsnbc.me/2017/09/23/pentagon-approves-major-contract-to-equip-afghan-military-with-vehicles/
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