The Taliban’s new U.S. arsenal is probably not limited to small arms, as the group captured large quantities of weapons and vehicles in US-backed forces, including modern mine-resistant vehicles. (MRAP) and Humvees.
Early estimates suggest the Taliban may also have several Black Hawk helicopters and other U.S.-funded military aircraft, according to a Congressional source familiar with early assessments provided by defense officials.
This may include about 20 A-29 Tucano attack aircraft, the source said, noting that there are some indications that only a small number of aircraft were transferred from a Kandahar base before the Taliban were invaded.
“We are also concerned that some may end up in the hands of others who support the Taliban cause,” a congressional source told CNN. “My biggest fear is that sophisticated weapons will be sold to our opponents and other non-state actors who intend to use them against us and our allies.”
“There is no exact responsibility for what is left,” an official said.
Evacuation operations remain the main focus of the administration, but Pentagon and State Department officials are also beginning to take stock of U.S. weapons that have fallen into the hands of the Taliban, an effort that according to sources CNN will take weeks or months due to the large volume of weapons supplied to Afghan forces over the past two decades.
Meanwhile, photographs and videos showing U.S.-supplied Taliban fighters carrying M4 carbines and M16 rifles feed into questions about the amount of U.S. firepower the militant group now has at its disposal after seizing bases military throughout Afghanistan.
While U.S. officials stress that it is too early to provide details on specific weapons and vehicles that are now under Taliban control, Pentagon officials have already expressed concern.
“When it comes to US-supplied equipment that is still in Afghanistan and may not be in the hands of the ANSF [Afghan National Security Force], there are several options we have at our disposal to try to deal with this problem, “Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said Thursday.
“Obviously, we do not want to see our equipment in the hands of those who would act against our interest or the interest of the Afghan people and increase violence and insecurity in Afghanistan,” he added.
For now, the U.S. is not expected to take steps to destroy weapons through airstrikes or other means, unless something poses a direct threat to U.S. troops at the airport, officials said. administration on CNN.
The destruction and withdrawal of U.S. equipment in Afghanistan began 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 started, at a slower pace, even earlier, when in 2018 U.S. strength levels fell below 14,000.
Between 2013 and 2016, the United States gave Afghan forces more than 600,000 small arms, including M16 and M4 rifles and about 80,000 vehicles, as well as night-vision goggles, radios and more, according to a report by the 2017 Office of Government Accountability. Most recently, the U.S. Department of Defense supplied the Afghan military with 7,000 machine guns, 4,700 humvees and more than 20,000 grenades between 2017 and 2019, according to a report by the inspector general. special for the reconstruction of Afghanistan. (The GAO and the Special Inspector General withdrew these reports at the request of the State Department to protect the Afghans identified within it).
In the past two years alone, the United States has also donated more than 18 million 7.62 mm, .50-caliber ammunition to the Afghan military, according to an account by the special inspector general’s quarterly reports.
Some of this certainly fell into the hands of the Taliban, officials say. In the final weeks of the withdrawal, several of the strikes carried out by the United States in Afghanistan were designed to destroy the U.S. team about to be invaded by the Taliban, two officials said. The United States did not destroy all the remaining equipment for the Afghan army because it believed, until it was too late, that Afghan forces would fight.
However, the fact that a significant number of weapons and vehicles were left is a symptom of the wider lack of planning that led to the withdrawal, according to Bill Roggio of the Long War Journal.
“There were so many problems with the decision to withdraw, and as soon as the decision was made by President Biden, the single focus of the military was to shrink,” he told CNN.
“He didn’t have time to think about how to make transitions, such as how the Afghan would operate on his own and maintain his own plane. How the United States would pass weapons systems to the Afghans and assess the viability of Afghan security. ” Roggio added.
Even before the announcement of Biden’s withdrawal earlier this year, U.S. officials acknowledged that even if the initial withdrawal deadline of May 1 was extended, it is possible that he must destroy some material or hand it over to the Afghan army, noting that the latter posed an obvious risk of being captured by the Taliban, according to a source familiar with internal planning discussions on Afghanistan at the time.
Finding the right balance between leaving enough resources for Afghan forces to continue fighting and mitigating the risk of weapons falling into the wrong hands would always be a difficult challenge for the U.S. military, but to that was added the fact that the Biden administration was apparently surprised by the speed of the Taliban advance, something the president and senior officials have publicly acknowledged.
While the Taliban can make immediate use of small arms and armored vehicles manufactured in the United States, officials are skeptical when it comes to turning U.S. aircraft into a viable combat unit.
“Our soldiers, sailors and aviators spend months and months training to use their planes,” an official said. “The Taliban don’t.”
“The more sophisticated armament is a much bigger challenge for the Taliban,” Roggio told CNN.
“Helicopters and planes will be very difficult to maintain as viable for a long period of time. Less so than Russian planes, with which they have more experience, and Pakistanis could also help them,” he added. “They may be able to use the aircraft in the short to medium term, but without any supply chain, its service life will be relatively short.”
“What they really gained in combat power are armored vehicles and light armored vehicles and even some tanks and artillery pieces,” Roggio said.
CNN’s Barbara Starr contributed to this report.