U.S. escalates contractor roles in Africa

WND ^ | Sept. 2, 2013 | Steve Peacock

[Steve Peacock]

Military planning for ways to haul supplies, weapons to and from Egypt

The Obama administration suddenly is hunting for contractors to help haul military equipment and supplies to and from Egypt and other nations within the U.S. Africa Command’s area of responsibility, WND has discovered.

The endeavor comes at a time of heightened tensions in the Mideast and North Africa, as U.S. warships already have arrived in the Mediterranean and warships from Syrian ally Russia reportedly are on the way.

Though it remains unclear which specific operations the initiative may support, the Army nonetheless is rapidly moving toward obtaining private-sector assistance in the AFRICOM Surface Distribution Services, or ASDS, endeavor.

It launched the solicitation for bids Aug. 5, gave contractors just four days to pose questions and allowed only two weeks beyond that to submit project proposals.

Contractors as early as Sept. 23 could be hauling “intratheater” AFRICOM cargo, according to procurement documents that WND discovered in a database search.

[driftdiver]

Kinda scary that these contracts aren’t already in place. really scary

[mosaicwolf]

I wonder where the money is coming from? I thought the sequester put the entire DoD on hold with furloughs, no fuel for flight hours, no ammo for qualification. Something is amiss here.