The New Silk Road: The Challenge
• Mission:
– Support the imminent doubling of US Forces (primarily in the south and west) and the upgrade of Operating Bases throughout the country, without impacting on‐going sustainment operations or force‐rotations in the north and east regions.
• Enemy:
– Security and Risk of theft along the existing route
– Fragile and fractured political climate within Pakistan
• Terrain:
– Limited ground routes through Pakistan
– Bureaucratic processes at the AFG‐PAK Border vic Peshawar
– Limited maturity of physical Infrastructure,
– Constrained air network in Afghanistan, particularly the south