Billions in US weaponry seized by Taliban

[left-of-center2012]

Billions of dollars of U.S. weapons are now in the hands of the Taliban following the quick collapse of Afghan security forces that were trained to use the military equipment.
Among the items seized by the Taliban are Black Hawk helicopters and A-29 Super Tucano attack aircraft.

Between 2003 and 2016, the United States transferred 75,898 vehicles, 599,690 weapons, 162,643 pieces of communications equipment, 208 aircraft, and 16,191 pieces of intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance equipment to Afghan forces, according to a 2017 Government Accountability Office report.

From 2017 to 2019, the United States also gave Afghan forces 7,035 machine guns, 4,702 Humvees, 20,040 hand grenades, 2,520 bombs and 1,394 grenade launchers, among other equipment, according to a report last year from the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR).

As of June 30, Afghan forces had 211 U.S.-supplied aircraft in their inventory, a separate SIGAR report said. At least 46 of those aircraft are now in Uzbekistan after more than 500 Afghan troops used them to flee as the government in Kabul collapsed over the weekend.

It is unclear exactly how many weapons have fallen into the hands of the Taliban, but the Biden administration has acknowledged it’s a “fair amount.”

https://thehill.com/policy/defense/568493-billions-in-us-weaponry-seized-by-taliban

[roamer65]

1. Start taking out the aircraft.

Eliminate any resistance to our air power.

[hauckeye]

2. Does the Taliban have people who can fly helicopters and planes?

[Aristus]

3. And maintain them?

And where are they going to get replacement parts?

They may have the capability for keeping Cold War-era Soviet junker tanks going, but not anything with real up-to-date battlefield dominance.

The Afghan Army had a mixed-bag tank fleet, most of them Soviet T-55's and T-62's, only about half of which were in running condition at the time. And running condition does not necessarily mean battlefield ready. And that was when the Afghan Army had us to help with supply and maintenance.

[Ferryboat]

4. Gonna need spare parts

And the technicians to maintain them.

[Aristus]

6. Iran had magnificent fleets of aircraft and tanks, mostly purchased in the West.

After the Islamic Revolution of 1979, when all American aid was cut off, many of their weapons systems rusted away for want of maintenance and spare parts.

Khomeini thought he could make do with landmines and unarmed teenage religious fanatics.

[Devil Child]

10. Taliban has captured intact stockpiles of spare parts

[Devil Child]

9. Yes, all the ANA pilots and techs who switched sides

Taliban have already posted vids of taking joyrides in captured helicopters. Then there is the intact captured warehouses of sore parts and other essentials for the captured airframes. So a good position to be when a year ago you had no air capability.

Pakistan and China can help fill any knowledge and hardware gaps.

[bluedevil4]

11. china

may be interested in our technology. Not sure why we didn't blow them up

[Johnny2X2X]

12. They don't have the people to maintain them

And we don't give these countries our best stuff, we generally give them stuff with older software. We probably have backdoors into these aircraft to disable them.

[David__77]

20. Certainly.

They’ll also incorporate/recruit people of various past political affiliations.

[ansible]

5. Really striking to see most of the Taliban fighters armed with American rifles now instead of AKs

[dalton99a]

8. And no more Toyotas. They are riding in Humvees, Suburbans and Ford pickups

[Klaralven]

21. Toyota Hilux pickup gets 20 to 25 mpg -- far better than a Humvee.

[dalton99a]

23. And far more reliable

There is a reason for their popularity outside the U.S.

[Devil Child]

15. Not only US arms but high-end optics is more concerning

Now Taliban can run around at night with night-vision goggles and thermal image rifle scopes in greater numbers than ever before.

[ansible]

16. They already have, there's been videos of them attacking ANA with night vision

Fish-in-a-barrel is the best way to describe it

[Devil Child]

18. Correct, why I added "greater numbers than ever before"

Going to be even harder for the hold outs in Panshir valley to overcome this.

Appreciate your updates BTW!

[zuul]

7. Heck of a job, war mongers!

[MineralMan]

13. Not surprising. That was materiel given to the Afghan armed forces.

It no longer belonged to the US. So, when the Taliban takes over, they get the stuff. We no longer own it.

However, the Taliban probably can't fly those aircraft. The vehicles and weapons, however will be used by them, as will the communications equipment. I'm not sure about the intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance equipment. It might not be of much use to the non-technological Taliban forces.

Some of the materiel will have aged out of operability by now.

In any case, it belonged to the Afghan military, so it is lost at this point.

[bluedevil4]

14. we should have destroyed everything

Now other countries will know our technology and there probably is information of what Afghans helped us. I heard a couple of news stations talk about bio-metric database was left behind.

Although I haven't seen that backed up with documentation.

I wish we had done things differently but we'll move on and soon this will be a memory

[Initech]

17. What could possibly go wrong?

Fuck you warmongers, Fox News, and everyone else who made this clusterfuck possible.

[honest.abe]

19. They probably wont be able to keep the big items maintained.

I suspect within a year all the aircraft will be inoperable.

[Klaralven]

22. Billions sounds like original cost. Military surplus gear typically sells for a lot less.

[left-of-center2012]

24. Yep, your correct

Billions of dollars in weapons is what we gave them.

Now, if it goes in sale ...

[Klaralven]

25. ANA probably got a lot of old stuff already used by US forces.

[left-of-center2012]

27. whatever

[GoCubsGo]

26. Much of it will get destroyed once we're out of there.

Via strafe bombing and drones. Not to mention that those are old numbers. How much of that stuff do they still have, and how much of it is still in working order?