US Air Force tests ‘base in a box’ in Poland to prep for future wars

LTC (Join to see) not surprised, and they consumed all the Force Provider and Harvest Falcon in Afghanistan circa 2009. You know hardly anything was coming back from that that would be serviceable after long term (permanent) use.

LTC Jason Mackay I'd think a Force Provider set would be cheaper than what the Air Force selected.

LTC (Join to see) - maybe. The AF Harvest Falcon and Eagle were not modular and scalable. Hope they didn't go the same way again. The smaller of the two were 500 people. FP you could build it out, given enough time and KBR/Fluor.

I got suckered into getting tapped to be the Investigating Officer for a report of survey for what I thought was supposed to be a few significant items on a list. I eventually learned what I was looking for was one of these, amounting to several millions of dollars. I eventually had to conclude there is no conceivable way for me to continue my assigned duty, and track all the components of the base in a box down. The "kit" was essentially moved all over both Afghanistan and Iraq and I had about 4 months left in to go with an actual job to do. Luckily my leadership agreed and I got to end this exercise in futility. I guess they also didn't like the idea I would have had to travel all over both AORs to find things which would never be found.

These AF kits need to use the same concept our Combat Comm units use. They deploy with the initial capability, which stays in theater, regardless of whether the unit gets redeployed and replace with a new one. Army Signal units took their equipment with them, which made for a huge mess with comms during the transition period. The returning Combat Comm unit would eventually get a new set of equipment after they returned. This was good for tech refresh and it avoided the cost and effort of shipping old gear back to stateside as often.

SFC Jim Ruether most of that migration is to earn more money in the US or a third country, and send it home, i.e. Remittances. Remittance adds significantly to the economy of those Origin countries where they have to do little and claim what ever credit that comes. That's a reason among several why our neighbors to the south don't do anything to help stem the tide.

Additionally, they would go zero to slum in 60 seconds. They require constant maintenance and military discipline to operate. NCOs have to be vigilant to keep them clean and vermin to a minimum. These Base in a Box concepts whether it is Force provider or what ever comes after it are really supposed to be temporary. They rarely are and they get junky. The left would have a field day painting them as third country concentration camp and of course they would cut to the family holding filthy children complaining about their self inflicted filth and squalor.

They would in actuallity be refugee camps, which according to Historical studies, is where all the exploitation, sexual assault, robberies, and terrible stuff happens to refugees. Marshaled in one place, no place to go, clinging to the one source of stability/resources, a place for bad actors to show up and do what they do with relative impunity.

CW4 Guy Butler AF has had them about the same amount of time. Harvest Falcon and Harvest Eagle. They were consumed in use by 2009...by the Afghan surge. This is their new and improved version.

The FP Company is singular, 542d QM Co, reserve component 5-6 Platoons. There is one the last time I checked. One used to be at Ft Lee in the active duty component, 43d QM Group with three FP Platoons, one in each component.

Was on a CG during Desert Shield when we saw the USAF LOGREQ for the group they were sending to Masirah Island - number of hotel rooms, rental cars, etc. At that time there were a few huts and a runway. We did send some Navy cooks for them.

Interesting. I didn’t know the Army had gone from 6 Force Provider companies to only one.