U.S. Trims Air Drops of Food

The United States is scaling back its schedule of food drops over Afghanistan following the success of the U.S.-backed drive to destroy Taliban rule, the military said Monday.

“We’re going from a regular flight schedule to more of an as-needed basis,” said Lt. Col. Edward S. Loomis at the U.S. Central Command in Stuttgart, Germany.

Until now, the flights have left from Ramstein Air Base in Germany nearly every night since Oct. 7, the same day U.S.-led airstrikes on Afghan targets began.

Loomis said he could not predict how much food is yet to be dropped, but he noted that aid organizations hope to resume regular humanitarian deliveries overland in Afghanistan.

“We’ve acknowledged from the start that airdrops are not the most efficient way,” he said. “Given the progress of the military mission on the ground, a lot has changed since Oct. 7-8.”

U.S. Air Force cargo planes have dropped more than 2.4 million food packets since the mission began, including 17,000 on Sunday, Loomis said.

The rations are packed into large cardboard boxes that tear apart when they are dropped out of the back of a plane.

The ration packages, each about the size and weight of a paperback book, then fall individually to the ground.

Each packet provides a 2,200-calorie daily ration of foods such as barley stew, rice and peanut butter.