Rifles, Humvees and millions of rounds of ammo: Taliban celebrate their new American arsenal

[dalton99a]

https://www.cnn.com/2021/08/21/politics/us-weapons-arsenal-taliban-afghanistan/index.html

Rifles, Humvees and millions of rounds of ammo: Taliban celebrate their new American arsenal
By Zachary Cohen and Oren Liebermann, CNN

...

The destruction and removal of US equipment in Afghanistan started in earnest shortly after the Trump administration signed the Doha agreement in February 2020, and the military began reducing its footprint from 8,500 troops to 2,500. But it began, at a slower pace, even before that, when in 2018 US force levels dropped below 14,000.

Between 2013 and 2016, the US gave Afghan forces more than 600,000 light weapons, such as M16 and M4 rifles and nearly 80,000 vehicles, as well as night vision goggles, radios and more, according to a 2017 Government Accountability Office report. Even more recently, the US Defense Department supplied the Afghan military with 7,000 machine guns, 4,700 Humvees and more than 20,000 grenades between 2017 and 2019, a report from the special inspector general for Afghanistan reconstruction found. (The GAO and the special inspector general removed these reports at the request of the State Department to protect any Afghans identified within.)

In the last two years alone, the US has also given the Afghan military more than 18 million rounds of 7.62mm and .50-caliber ammunition, according to a tally of the special inspector general's quarterly reports.

Some of this no doubt fell into Taliban hands, officials say. In the final weeks of the withdrawal, a number of the strikes the US carried out in Afghanistan were designed to destroy American equipment about to be overrun by the Taliban, two officials said. The US didn't destroy all of the equipment left for the Afghan military because it believed, until it was too late, that Afghan forces would fight back.



Taliban fighters in a Humvee in Kabul on Monday, August 16, 2021.


The Taliban have published a series of photographs of their fighters at an Independence Day parade brandishing US assault weapons.

[snowybirdie]

1. And just how long

Will this hardware continue to work. No parts will be available and the economy will be in free fall.

[SYFROYH]

14. The ammo will be good for 100 years in dry conditions

The guns, too.

The humvees are relatively simple and they can probably kept running for years even with makeshift parts.

Planes and helicopters require a lot avionics and maintenance.

[csziggy]

18. I bet they are still using Russian weapons left in 1989

In fact I seem to remember stories back then about the Taliban using British weapons left after the First Anglo-Afghan War which ended in 1842!

I think the Soviet withdrawal was just as messy as ours:

LAST SOVIET SOLDIERS LEAVE AFGHANISTAN AFTER 9 YEARS, 15,000 DEAD AND GREAT COST

By Bill Keller, Special To the New York Times

Feb. 16, 1989
The last Soviet soldier came home from Afghanistan this morning, the Soviet Union announced, leaving behind a war that had become a domestic burden and an international embarrassment for Moscow.

The final Soviet departure came on the day set as a deadline by the Geneva accords last April. It left two heavily armed adversaries, the Kremlin-backed Government of President Najibullah and a fractious but powerful array of Muslim insurgents, backed by the United States and Pakistan, to conclude their civil war on their own.

Lieut. Gen. Boris V. Gromov, the commander of the Soviet forces in Afghanistan, walked across the steel Friendship Bridge to the border city of Termez, in Uzbekistan, at 11:55 A.M. local time (1:55 A.M., Eastern time), 9 years and 50 days after Soviet troops intervened to support a coup by a Marxist ally. 'Our Stay Ends'

https://www.nytimes.com/1989/02/16/world/last-soviet-soldiers-leave-afghanistan-after-9-years-15000-dead-and-great-cost.html

[Historic NY]

2. They have to have fuel

I'm sure a few drone strikes can take care of that.

[Calista241]

4. That's essentially a declaration of war.

And the Iranians, Pakistani's and other neighboring countries will want to trade something to prevent exportation of their religion.

[Calista241]

3. The only thing that really matters is the Night Vision Equipment.

Humvees were garbage, and that's why they were being replaced by the MRAP, but the Taliban captured a lot of those as well.

The 'Air Force' Afghanistan had will need parts and maintenance within a month, and those plane will be unable to fly without it. If they have a bunch of trained mechanics, they can probably part out some Blackhawks and Super Tucanos to keep a smaller number in service, but that won't save them for long.

[albacore]

6. But Taliban Humbee parades and Blackhawk flyovers will scare the hell out of the locals...

... and that consolidates their power.

[TheBlackAdder]

7. All of that abandoned weaponry and they couldn't scuttle any of it?

[RussBLib]

8. seems absurd to me

to leave millions and millions of dollars worth of arms and equipment behind. Perhaps it's just another way to feed the war machine.

[fescuerescue]

9. They didn't have time. Trump surprised us all with this one

No one knew until it was too late.

That's what happens when prior presidents don't brief new ones.

[haele]

12. Pretty much all of it is 15/20 years old.

While still weapons, terrorist organizations can get better on the black market.
Besides, they don't have access to spare parts. Pretty sure half of the equipment will become spare parts for the ones still operational.

Haele

[Thomas Hurt]

5. wow white robes and hoods, how is that for irony.

[uponit7771]

16. right ?!

[a kennedy]

17. I know, was thinking that as well. 🤬 🤬 🤬

[Ron Green]

10. All that matters is that the weapons got manufactured and sold,

and that money was made; and that the level of fear is maintained. The business of war is business above all.

[tirebiter]

11. North Vietnam inherited about the third largest air force from us.

How'd that turn out?

[llashram]

13. wow

[uponit7771]

15. Put some money on it they got those AR-15's with help from the NRA