FORT BELVOIR, Va., Jan. 5 (UPI) -- The U.S. Defense Logistics Agency is procuring building materials for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in Afghanistan.
U.S. Army Lt. Col. Carl Knotts, chief of plans, exercise and readiness branch in DLA's Joint Logistics Operations Center, said the agency began the effort in October because of concerns about the quality of locally procured construction materials.
"What they've asked us to do is the procurement and the strategic distribution to the geographic region," he said.
"From an agency perspective, it's an expansion into a business line that we generally didn't have a business presence of this magnitude," he said. "This is a chance for us to demonstrate that we can do this and do it well."
The materials are for K-Span structures, which are large corrugated metal buildings used in Afghanistan in the training of Afghan National Police and by Army officials.
"One of the overarching components of counterinsurgency operations is to take the indigenous population and make it self-sufficient," Knotts said. "In order to do that, since they don't have facilities out there to help the government maintain control, we have to build facilities for them."
As the Department of Defense's combat logistics support agency, DLA provides the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps, other federal agencies -- and joint and allied forces -- with a variety of logistics, acquisition and technical services. The agency sources and provides nearly 100 percent of the consumable items America's military forces need to operate.
