WASHINGTON (AFP) — The US Air Force has sought millions of dollars in "war on terror" funds for "comfort capsules" so that the military brass can fly first class to war zones in Iraq and Afghanistan, a spokeswoman confirmed Friday.
The capsules, which are loaded into the bay of a military transport plane, come with a sofa, work space, two leather seats, a flat-screen TV, ports for a satellite phone and a separate module with two bunk beds and closets, the air force spokeswoman said.
Air force generals added hundreds of thousands of dollars to the costs with upgrades to leather, carpet and wood choices, according to the Project on Government Oversight (POGO), a non-profit watchdog group that obtained internal emails about the program.
One email alluded to concerns of General Robert MacMahon, an air force deputy chief of staff, that the capsules be designed for the highest standards of luxury travel, POGO said.
"General MacMahon's concern is so significant that we need assurance by the end of the week from AFRL (Air Force Research Laboratory) that the SLICC will be 'World class' inside," the e-mail is quoted as saying.
"While we know the requirements document says 'business class', we all know there are levels of that," it said.
The first of the capsules is already in production at a cost of 2.7 million dollars, and is scheduled for delivery in five months, said air force spokeswoman Vicky Stein.
Stein said the new capsules were needed to keep pace with a growing demand for VIP travel to war zones.
"There are growing demands for senior leader transportation across the globe, especially into Iraq, Afghanistan and other theaters," she said.
"The diverts were aimed at responding as quickly as possible to growing requirements."
Although the capsule came out of the US Air Force base budget, the service asked to use funds dedicated for the war on terrorism to fund the purchase of two more at 1.9 million dollars each. The request was denied, said Stein.
"We started with the idea of getting 10 capsules but we scaled it down to three, based on what it looked like we needed at the time," she said. "We're looking for other funding for the two."
The air force also has acquired four pallets with four first class seats each as part of the effort to give VIPs comfortable seating on their way to war zones.
The air force calls them "the slick and the slip," taken from acronyms for their official names: the senior leader conference capsule and the senior leader in-transit pallet.
The Washington Post, which first reported on the "comfort capsules," as they were originally called by the air force, said at least four generals were involved in design decisions.
A request that the color of the leather seats be changed from brown to air force blue, and that seat pockets be added alone cost more than 68,000 dollars, the Post said.
It said the air force decided last year to take 331,000 dollars from war on terror funds to pay for a cost overrun resulting in part from the changes.
In a letter to US Defense Secretary Robert Gates, POGO called it "an egregious failure of leadership ... that involves breathtaking extravagance when every dollar needs to be wisely spent in a time of war."
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