The Pentagon is inflating its expected costs for the advisory mission in Afghanistan next year, according to a defense expert.
Todd Harrison, senior fellow at the Center for Budgetary and Strategic Assessments, says that as the number of troops deployed drops, the costs for the Afghan mission should be falling at a similar rate.
The Pentagon is planning to ask for $42 billion in its 2016 defense budget for the advisory mission in Afghanistan, which amounts to between $3.5 million and $4 million per soldier, Harrison said at a press briefing Friday.
That is a significant uptick from the $2.1 million cost per troop in 2014, and from the average cost of $1.2 million per troop between 2005 to 2014.
The $42 billion is eight times more than the $5.3 billion that's expected to be requested for the war against the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria.