$550 million-plus to be spent on Australian troops in Afghanistan

Herald Sun ^ | 16th June 2009 | Ian McPhedran

[naturalman1975]

MORE than $550 million will be spent during the next 12 months to better protect Australia's 1090 troops fighting in Afghanistan.

The money will fund armoured vehicle improvements, protected living containers, more bomb disposal robots and boost spy plane flights targeting Taliban forces.

The half-billion dollar taxpayer investment is by far the biggest chunk of a proposed financial "surge'' that will double annual military spending on Operation Slipper to $1.4 billion in 2009-2010.

That is a massive $26,923,076 a week, or $3,835,616 for every day of operations. On a per head basis it amounts to $1,288,403 for every Australian soldier posted to the war-ravaged country.