Investigation
What the bases pay, and who works there
The Pentagon does not count its forces in Irad separately, and the ISEZ does not publish what it is paid. The Times has added up what can be counted.
From the Irad Times of 12 September 2024.
The United States has kept forces at Talas Air Base and five other sites in Irad since 1992. Neither government publishes how many people work there or what the arrangement pays the ISEZ. Over three months the Times has put together what can be counted from contract notices, payroll figures given to us by contractors, the ISEZ budget and interviews with more than forty people who work on or around the bases.
Our estimate is that about 3,500 US military personnel and about 1,800 US contractors are at Talas Air Base, with about 900 more people at the other five sites, whose locations are not published. In 2020, by the same method, the figure for military personnel was about 5,500.
The Iradis on the payroll
About 4,600 Iradis work at the installations, either directly or through KBR, which holds the base-support contracts, and its subcontractor Alatau Logistics Group of Fairfax, Virginia, which has run catering, laundry and local hiring since 1997. In 2019 the figure was nearer 5,800. Former employees told us about 1,200 Iradi jobs went between 2021 and 2023, when the remaining Afghan supply work ended.
Base contract spending in Irad fell, by our estimate, from about $700 million a year in 2019 to about $450 million this year. Much of it still reaches western Talas District, where the commercial corridor between the city and the base, with its logistics parks, fuel depots and canteens, grew up to serve it.
The fee nobody names
Besides the contracts, the 2009 arrangement between Washington and the ISEZ pays the ISEZ a land and services fee. Its amount has never been published. The ISEZ budget books it, together with other receipts, under “fees from the US installations and foreign firms”. Comparing that line with the budget's other published sources of the same receipts, we estimate the base fee at about $85 million a year.
The Department of Public Information said the figures were “for both parties to agree” and declined to comment on our estimate. A spokesman at the base said US force levels “are not discussed for operational reasons”. Alatau Logistics Group said it was “proud to be one of the largest private employers in Talas”.
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