U.S. Central Command on Friday pushed back against reports that the Pentagon had spent $2 million per fighter before it overhauled its train-and-equip program in Syria, saying instead that the number is closer to $30,000 per graduate.
Col. Pat Ryder, a spokesman for U.S. Central Command, said the military has spent $384 million of the $500 million allocated by Congress for the project to train 180 fighters, 145 of which are still active in the fight.
But only about $5.4 million of that was spent on actual training, he said. The rest was spent on weapons and ammunition, which the U.S. still has and is dropping to the Syrian Arab Coalition under the revised plan to arm Syrian rebels fighting the Islamic State.
“This is simply not accurate,” Ryder said of the USA Today article citing the $2 million-per-fighter cost. “In terms of the cost to train individuals, it cost the coalition approximately $30,000 to train and equip an individual NSF graduate.”
The program to train and equip Syrian rebels was paused last month after much criticism from Congress when officials revealed only a handful of fighters remained from the first class. The third class of fighters, which was in progress when the program was halted, graduated last week, The Hill reported.
The new U.S. strategy involves vetting the leaders of already-established Syrian rebel groups and then providing them with weapons via air drops.
