Millions wasted on buying Woodland uniform for army

The Pentagon wasted millions of dollars buying the Afghan army a camouflage woodland uniform that have made soldiers easier to spot.

2,200 US lives have been lost and Afghan soldiers are being slain in the thousands each year in the longest war in US history.

The office of the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR) said the Pentagon may have spent as much as $28 million more than necessary when it decided in 2007 to purchase the dark-green camouflage uniforms.

After further consultation with the Afghan defence ministry, officials decided in 2007 to adopt the camouflage pattern containing a “forest” colour scheme for army uniforms, “despite the fact that forests cover only 2.1 percent of Afghanistan’s total land area,” SIGAR noted.

That decision resulted in the purchase of 1,364,602 such uniforms and 88,010 extra pairs of pants between November 2008 and January this year.

The proprietary design meant the uniforms cost about 40 percent more than non-proprietary camouflage.