I want my APC
Across the world, the Pentagon has thousands of garages, hangars and sprawling lots to store all its jets, tanks and other weaponry. But, like most American households, it is cluttered with old, unused and unwanted things.
And so the Pentagon runs a little-publicized giveaway and tag sale program to clean out its overstuffed attics and closets, bulging with the greatest weapons buildup since the Reagan era. The Pentagon also uses the Excess Defense Articles program, as it is called, to reward government friends and allies across the globe.
There are deals galore, available free to the right customer or for cents on the dollar of their original cost. There are lots of deal hunters, but access is by invitation only, and only for governments.
Pakistan and Jordan have snapped up a bunch of used F-16 Fighting Falcon jets. Afghanistan kicked the tires on a fleet of slightly used armored personnel carriers and walked away with 75 of them. A small fleet of 30-year-old sea rescue lifeboats has become the backbone of the Yemeni coast guard, and Portugal is about to take possession of a decommissioned guided-missile frigate.
“It is a flea market,” said a State Department official who oversees the program. “It’s our yard sale, and we make no guarantees.”
The program is meant as a good will operation that the government uses to build friendships internationally. And the program has been picking up: the equipment offered in 2006 had an original price tag of around $1.56 billion, twice that of the previous year. It is expected to grow again in 2007.
“There’s everything from M-16s to F-16s, and anything in between,” said Rachel J. Stohl, a senior analyst at the Center for Defense Information, a nonprofit group often critical of military spending. “You can’t get everything you want. But, boy, can you get a bargain.”
Between 2000 and 2005, the Pentagon offered up wares originally valued at $8 billion: helicopters, torpedoes, airplanes, a wind tunnel, utility landing craft, cargo trucks, high-power radars, missiles, ammunition, uniforms and tenders, harbor craft and other vessels.
Commissaristan is a front-line state in the war on terror. Besides, a good M113 APC in the garage could be very useful for bringing kids back and forth to soccer games.
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