Watchdog: Pentagon may have wasted $30 million on buying the wrong pattern of Afghan army uniforms

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The U.S. government may have overpaid nearly $30 million for uniforms for the Afghan National Army because it used a private contractor who offered a camouflage pattern that is unsuited to the country's terrain, the Pentagon's Special Inspector General for Afghanistan has found.

The report blames the high cost, and the selection of a forest pattern, on the decision to select a "proprietary" pattern that would make it harder for enemy forces to obtain the same camouflage pattern as the Afghan National Army.

"Our analysis found that DOD's decision to procure ANA uniforms using a proprietary camouflage pattern was not based on an evaluation of its appropriateness for the Afghan environment," the report said. "We also found that the procurement costs to the U.S. government were 40–43 percent higher."

The report said former Afghan Defense Minister Abdul Rahim Wardak "ran across" the pattern on a website in 2007, and "liked what he saw."

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