[Poundstone]

The need to rotate troops is easy to understand.

The need to rotate equipment is not as easy to understand. In certain cases, such as helicopters, the incoming troops (in this case, including Marines) may use different types of helos than the outgoing troops (Army) have been using -- no problem there: gotta rotate that equipment.

But trucks?

I don't see the need to rotate equipment that is (a) identical to what the incoming troops will use; or (b) may not be exactly the same (different type trucks, for example), but is similar enough so that the incomers can quickly get up to speed on it.

Is much of the "old" equipment in need of major maintenance? Maybe so, but that argues for establishing a high-volume maintenance depot in Kuwait instead of going the far more costly route of shipping the stuff out of theater and bringing in new equipment.

[arm958]

Is much of the "old" equipment in need of major maintenance? Maybe so, but that argues for establishing a high-volume maintenance depot in Kuwait instead of going the far more costly route of shipping the stuff out of theater and bringing in new equipment.

Rotating equipment struck me as rather inefficient too. However, I think you are right about the need for major maintenance. Perhaps it's just too costly to establish a major maintenance facility in Kuwait. There is a lot of heavy, specialized equipment involved in depot level maintenance, and most of the people who do it are civilians.

[stilts]

Actually, many of the helicopters are the same equipment also. My brother-in-law flies choppers for the Marine Reserves and is being rotated in to replace their sister unit which is on the east coast as opposed to his west coast unit. They sent in the same choppers.

What you need to keep in mind is that the returning soldiers will need to have equipment at the base they return to. They left base with all their equipment so if they leave their stuff in Iraq then the other equipment would be needed to be moved to the bases they return to.

[Prodigal Son]

One thing to keep in mind. Some of these units in Iraq who might have been stationed in say- Georgia, might be replaced by troops from Germany. So upon arriving to their home station, they would not have any equipment and would not be able to deploy to a new theatre without somehow aquiring the trucks and other vehicles they left behind in Iraq.

[Chewbacca]

"Is much of the "old" equipment in need of major maintenance?"

I work for the USAF, and you have to understand that military equipment has scheduled Depot Level Maintenance (DLM)plans which requires the equipment to be sent in for overhaul or inspections on a scheduled time frame.

For example, some aircraft require various field level inspection between 100 to 1000 hours. Besides the field level inspections there is the required DLM maintenance where all the Ultrasonic/X-Ray/Eddy Current inspections are conducted on critical support structures, special inspections for cracks are conducted, and hard to replace parts and equipment are changed.