Small Wars Journal

NATO Base in Kabul is Building More Amid Open-Ended U.S. Commitment

Tue, 09/18/2018 - 3:09am

NATO Base in Kabul is Building More Amid Open-Ended U.S. Commitment by Chad Garland - Stars & Stripes

Nearly 17 years after the U.S.-led invasion of Afghanistan, the international coalition in Kabul is putting down new roots with hardened permanent structures to replace temporary ones at its headquarters in the increasingly violent capital.

A contract to build a massive, concrete command-and-control center on the compound is currently out to bid, officials there said last week.

Some base personnel in June said construction of the planned three-story, 120,000-square-foot concrete building would require hundreds of people living and working in temporary structures at the headquarters to relocate to other nearby bases.

The complex is expected to have more than 800 workspaces, according to a NATO procurement document. Contracting rules bar release of further details during the bidding and design phase, officials said.

The plans follow completion earlier this summer of a permanent passenger terminal and control tower at the compound’s helicopter landing zone, which until a few years ago was still a soccer field. An uptick in air traffic at the Resolute Support headquarters, the result of rising insecurity in the capital, drove the effort…

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