Summary Document -- Defense Department portion of the Administration's aid proposal, January, 2000

Summary Document -- Defense Department portion of the Administration's aid proposal, January, 2000

Colombia Supplemental

- The funding for the Department of Defense in the President's Emergency Supplemental integrates with the State Department's Supplemental funding to provide a comprehensive counterdrug ground and air interdiction capability for Colombia.

- For the first time, when the programs in this supplemental are implemented Colombia will be able to actively engage the cocaine industry at its center of gravity, the region of Colombia East of the Andes. This vast jungle region is where, for the past 15 years, most of the world's cocaine has been processed in cocaine HCL labs, prior to transshipment to the United States, and where, in recent years, much of the world's cocaine is being cultivated.

- The ground and air interdiction resources for Colombia in the Supplemental will allow Colombia to conduct continuing operations in this critical region, and should have a dramatic impact on the entire cocaine industry.

- Overall, the Supplemental contains $l03M of Defense funding in FY00 and $41M in FY01 for Colombia. These figures add to the existing counterdrug funding in the Department of Defense's budgets for these years. Specific Colombia programs supported with Defense Department funding in the Supplemental include:

- Counterdrug Battalion $18M in FY00 to equip and train the second and third dedicated, Colombian Army counterdrug battalions. These battalions will give the Colombian Army a complete counterdrug Army Brigade at Tres Esquinas, Colombia, composed of three Army ground Battalions and supported with substantial helicopter mobility from the State Department's portion of the supplemental. In FY01, $3M will provide for further training and sustainment of the Colombian Army counterdrug ground units.

- Counterdrug Brigade Headquarters $1M in FY00 for a counterdrug Brigade Headquarters to support the strategic and tactical operation of the counter drug Brigade located at Tres Esquinas, Colombia.

- Aviation Infrastucture $8.2M in FY00 and $5M in FY01 for a variety of critical aviation infrastructure needs to support the UH-IN and UH-60 helicopters that will provide mobility for the Brigade. Includes ground support equipment, hangers, fueling facilities, etc.

- Military Reform $3M in FY00 and $3M in FY01 to provide the essential assistance needed by Colombia to support their effort to restructure their military establishment to be able to engage the drug threat throughout the country. Their effort will restructure and improve planning, logistics, training, doctrine development, strategy development, recruitment, and tactical and operational processes.

- Senior Scout $5M in FY01 to support Colombia with additional US military airborne intelligence on the drug threat.

- Tracker Aircraft $7M in FY00 and $3M in FY01 to modify two Colombia Air Force C-26 Merlin aircraft by installing air-to-air radars and communications equipment. The completed aircraft will give Colombia a capability to track and intercept the hundreds of illegal smuggling aircraft that move the cocaine for the HCL labs to the Colombian coasts for transshipment to the United States.

- AC-47 Aircraft $1M in FY00 to install a FLIR (infrared imaging system) in a Colombian AC-47 aircraft to greatly enhance the aircraft's ability to support night operations against drug smuggling activities. $6.4M in FY01 to modify an additional Colombian AC-47 aircraft with FLIR, night vision cockpit, and weapons systems to provide additional airborne combat capabilities against ground drug trafficking targets.

- Ground-Based Radars $13M in FY00 to install a ground-based radar at Tres Esquinas, Colombia, to provide air control over the currently uncontrolled Putumayo region of Colombia, where over 76% of Colombia’s coca cultivation occurs. $7M in FY01 to upgrade and install another ground-based radar in Colombia to support critical air interdiction operations.

- Radar Command and Control $5M in FY00 to provide Colombia a modern and operationally effective radar command and control system capable of monitoring Colombian radars and controlling the Colombian Air Force air interdiction operations throughout Colombia.

- Manta FOL $38.6M in FY00 to expedite construction of critical elements of the US forward operating location being established at Manta, Ecuador. Limited construction efforts will provide facilities at the existing Manta airport necessary to support the operation of US Navy, Air Force, and Customs aircraft. These US assets will provide airborne radar coverage of SE Colombia and surveillance of the Pacific Colombian maritime region. The radar information over Colombia is simply critical for successful Colombia interdiction of the hundreds of air smuggling flights that move cocaine from HCL labs east of the Andes to the northern and western coastal regions. The FOL will also support critical maritime operations in the eastern Pacific against the maritime smuggling of cocaine from Colombia's western ports.

- Andean Ridge Collection $3M in FY00 and $4M in FY01 to support Colombia with critical intelligence on the drug-smuggling activities.

- Ground Interdiction $5M in FY00 to start a Colombian program to control drug smuggling on the major roads across the Andes and those roads feeding the northern coast and western coast cocaine transshipment regions.