The US Department of Defense is trying to calculate the number of American military equipment and weapons that ended up in the hands of the Taliban.

Jake Sullivan, Assistant to the President of the United States for National Security, stated this on the air of the CBS television company.

"The Department of Defense (USA -

RT

) is counting all defense items that ... could fall into the hands of the Taliban," the official said.

According to Sullivan, US President Joe Biden had to make a difficult choice in the matter of supplying weapons to the Afghan government forces.

As the official explained, the head of the White House understood that there was a risk of losing the military equipment transferred to Kabul.

“The Afghan military has asked the US for funds in order to be able to fight the Taliban.

Therefore, the president had a choice: to refuse and leave them without funds, or to agree and risk that if the Afghans were defeated, they could fall into the hands of the Taliban.

None of the options were perfect, but he chose the one that, in his opinion, best served the interests of our country, ”said Sullivan.

The US presidential aide did not announce the list of lost weapons, but admitted the loss of the UH-60 Black Hawk multipurpose helicopters.

Earlier, the Taliban published photographs of these American rotorcraft at Kandahar International Airport - in mid-May, the US military handed over the airbase located in this province to government forces. 

Sullivan stated that Washington does not yet have an idea of ​​the size of the arsenal that the Taliban has inherited.

In any case, as the official explained, the US authorities do not hope that they will be able to return the military equipment left in Afghanistan.

“Of course, we do not have a complete picture of where each item of military equipment is located, but it is certain that a significant number of them fell into the hands of the Taliban.

And obviously we doubt that they are willing to bring him to the airport and return, ”added Sullivan.

Abandoned arsenal 

The loss of military equipment in Afghanistan has caused a lot of political resonance in the United States.

Republican senators sent a letter to the head of the Pentagon, Lloyd Austin, in which they called for "full accountability" for the weapons that were abandoned by the Afghan army.

Congressmen are demanding detailed information on what weapons ended up in the hands of the Taliban and how the militants of this movement are able to use them.

“It is not right that the advanced weapons that the US taxpayers paid for fell into the hands of the Taliban and their terrorist allies.

The protection of US-owned property should have been a priority for the Department of Defense even before the announcement of the withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan, "- quotes the Fox News channel excerpts from the letter of the Republicans.

  • Afghan servicemen at the Black Hawk helicopter supplied by the USA

  • Reuters

  • © US Marine Corps / 1st Lt.

    Kathleen kochert

We will remind, on August 15, the leaders of the Taliban movement seized Kabul and announced that they had established control over the entire territory of Afghanistan.

The actual coming to power of the Taliban was preceded by the forced winding down of the military presence of the United States and the offensive launched by the Taliban in June.

Government forces often surrendered positions without a fight and abandoned American weapons to flee. 

“The civilian authorities and military personnel of Afghanistan fled as best they could.

When such a panic, of course, no one thought about how to somehow preserve the weapons transferred by the Americans, "said Alexei Podberezkin, director of the Center for Military-Political Research at MGIMO, in a commentary on RT.

According to the expert, in Afghanistan the Taliban received "almost all weapons", which the United States handed over to official Kabul.

As the American edition of The Hill notes, the Taliban could get a rich arsenal.

According to journalists, in addition to Black Hawk, militants seized part of the Embraer 314 attack aircraft fleet, which remained in Afghanistan.

Citing a report from the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR), reporters clarified that as of June 30, 2021, the Afghan forces were armed with 211 US-supplied aircraft.

Also, according to the publication, the Taliban got their hands on M4 carbines and M-16 rifles made at US factories, Humvees army off-road vehicles (HMMWV) and mine-protected vehicles.

All of these weapons were spotted in footage that hit the media and social networks. 

The Hill does not give the total number of US arms deliveries to the Afghan Armed Forces, however, citing SIGAR data, journalists report that in 2017-2019, Kabul received 4.7 thousand Humvees from the United States, more than 7 thousand machine guns, 20 thousand hand grenades , 2.5 thousand bombs and almost 1.4 thousand grenade launchers.

In turn, from the report of the US Audit Office for 2017, it follows that in the period from 2003 to 2016, Washington transferred 599.7 thousand weapons, 75.9 thousand various vehicles, over 162.6 thousand vehicles to the Afghan security forces. communications equipment, almost 16.2 thousand units of reconnaissance equipment, 208 aircraft.

“With varying intensity, the supply of American weapons to Afghanistan continued for all 20 years.

It is clear that some of the equipment was out of order for various reasons, and something was plundered by the Afghan army.

In addition, the Taliban, for example, will not be able to operate aviation (due to the lack of pilots and technical personnel -

RT

), but Washington's material losses cannot but impress, ”Podberezkin argues.

  • Army SUV Humvee in Afghanistan

  • Reuters

  • © Jim Hollander

At the same time, the expert doubts that the Taliban will agree to give the United States aircraft and other equipment that they are not able to use in hostilities.

“I don’t think the Taliban will give anything to the Americans for free.

In any case, the evacuation of abandoned military equipment is difficult.

It will be necessary again to massively involve aviation, and now the United States does not have transport resources for this, ”says Podberezkin.

"No good"

American media claim that over almost 20 years of military presence, the US invested more than $ 80 billion in equipping and training the Afghan army. Experts believe that this figure is close to the real volume of US spending on military support for Kabul since 2001.

In addition to supplying weapons of its own production, Washington purchased certain samples of military equipment for the Afghan Armed Forces from other states, including Russia.

In 2011, the US Department of the Ground Forces (part of the Pentagon) signed a contract with Rosoboronexport for the supply of multipurpose Mi-17s for government forces.

True, Washington subsequently decided to transfer the Afghan army to the Black Hawk.

As of the end of July, there were 56 Mi-17 units in the fleet of government troops, of which 32 were operational.

Experts believe that this technique, most likely, will also be lost.

The main reason for the enormous material damage that the United States suffered is that for almost 20 years the Pentagon has not been able to form an efficient and motivated government army.

This opinion was expressed in an interview with RT by a political scientist, expert at the Center for the Study of Modern Afghanistan, Dmitry Verkhoturov.

“Washington adjusted the Afghan army to NATO standards.

A lot of money was really invested in it, but the supplied equipment did not bring success in the fight against the Taliban.

Everything depended on the US military presence, ”said Verkhoturov.

According to the expert, Afghans entered the army mainly for the purpose of earning money.

In conditions of monstrous unemployment, the armed forces and other law enforcement agencies that supported the United States were the largest employers in the republic, the expert stated.

“Elite units have even been created within the Afghan army.

They were also trained by the Americans, but with such an approach to the army service, any investments could not give real results, ”the political scientist explained.

Alexey Podberezkin blames the United States authorities for the collapse of the army reform in Afghanistan, since it was the United States that was the inspirers and main curators of the formation of troops, which eventually abandoned almost all the supplied equipment.

“The Americans imposed their values, ignoring the fact that Afghanistan has a different society.

It was not clear to the Afghans what good ideas to fight against the Taliban for.

For the national interests of the United States?

There could be no point in spending tens of billions on such an army, ”Podberezkin concluded.

* "Taliban" - the organization was recognized as terrorist by the decision of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation of February 14, 2003.