A new travel style for Washington VIPs? It's SLICC

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - They sound like first-rate in-flight accommodations -- leather chairs, a 37-inch (94-cm) flat-screen monitor, bed, couch, table -- all the comfort a traveling VIP could want.

But critics say the new amenities intended for top U.S. defense, military and other officials come with a price tag of $4.4 million, and counting.

That, plus the fact that some money for the facilities was requested in a bill meant to fund the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, has exposed the already scandal-hit U.S. Air Force to charges of extravagant waste.

The Project on Government Oversight, or POGO, a Washington-based non-profit group, revealed details about the accommodations known as Senior Leader In-Transit Conference Capsules, or SLICCs, in a letter this week to Defense Secretary Robert Gates.

"In a time of war, it is critical for senior officials to visibly prioritize the needs of the men and women on the front line," POGO told Gates.

"Yet an egregious failure of leadership has come to our attention that involves breathtaking extravagance when every dollar needs to be wisely spent in a time of war."

SLICCs are two connected chambers with chairs, couch, bed and other amenities on a pallet that can be loaded onto a cargo aircraft such as a C-17 Globemaster or C-130 Hercules.

Air Force officials said the allegations of waste mischaracterize an effort to meet heightened demand for travel to trouble spots including Iraq and Afghanistan by military commanders, Defense and State Department officials, White House staff and members of Congress.

A costlier alternative, Air Force Lt. Col. Michael Paoli argued, would be to fly VIPs aboard civilian-style government airliners that cannot also haul troops and materiel.

"The pallets are not opulent," Paoli said. "They're low-cost options intended to provide flight amenities in a manner befitting representatives of our government."

COST DISPUTED

The Air Force last year handled 1,500 flights by senior U.S. officials to U.S. Central Command's area of operation, which spans 27 countries including Iraq, Afghanistan, Sudan, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan.

The dispute follows the forced departure last month of the Air Force secretary and chief of staff over two high-profile scandals involving mix-ups in the U.S. nuclear arsenal.

POGO said the Air Force has spent nearly $2.75 million to produce a SLICC prototype still five months from being completed. That amounts to a 64 percent rise from an initial cost estimate of $1.7 million, according to the group.

Another $1.7 million has been spent on a related amenity called the Senior Leader In-Transit Pallet, or SLIP, which consists of a pallet with four leather business-class chairs with tables.

Paoli put spending for the SLICC prototype and four SLIPs at $3.8 million, a sum $600,000 below POGO's estimate.

The Air Force originally referred to SLICCs as "comfort" capsules but dropped the word comfort in favor of "conference," POGO said.

The group also found that some Air Force generals have been intimately involved with development of the SLICC and SLIP.

One general, who POGO said pressed for "world class" accommodations, rejected an initial brown-leather SLIP chair design. He demanded the leather's color be changed to Air Force blue and the original wood to cherry. The reupholstering alone cost $21,000, the group said.

The Air Force sought $16 million for SLICCs under a recently approved $184 billion funding bill for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and the Bush administration's global war on terrorism. But Paoli said the request was not approved.

(Editing by Eric Beech)