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Taliban fighters captured Kabul's Hamid Karzai International Airport moments after the last US forces left Afghanistan and seized US-made military equipment including Chinook and Black Hawk helicopters either previously used by the Afghan Air Force or abandoned by US forces.
A video posted by a Los Angeles Times reporter on Twitter showed Taliban fighters in US military uniforms entering an aircraft hangar at Kabul's now-abandoned airport to check on a US Army Chinook helicopter. The fighters were equipped with flak shields, night vision goggles and rifles.
With the end of America's longest war, there are fears that US military equipment may fall into the hands of Taliban fighters. Previous videos and photos posted on social media after the group captured Kabul on August 15 showed their fighters carrying M4 and M18 assault rifles and M24 sniper weapons and driving around in their famous Humvees.
"We don't have a complete picture, of course, of where every single piece of defense has gone," White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said August 17. But sure enough, a fair amount of it fell into the hands of the Taliban. Obviously, we don't feel like they're going to hand it over to us easily."
Congressman Jim Banks, a former military sales officer during the Afghanistan war, said America's rapid decline left $85 billion worth of equipment to the Taliban. Between 2005 and 2021, the United States spent at least $18 billion to support the Afghan military with “equipment and transportation,” according to the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR) report to Congress released last month, plus many more billions in training and maintenance.
While it is not clear if the Taliban have the ability to use all of the previous Afghan equipment, they have demonstrated the ability to use Soviet-era D-30 howitzers and assault rifles.
The Pentagon said today, Tuesday, that US forces had to leave some military assets at Kabul airport, including Counter-Rocket missile defense systems, artillery and mortars (C-RAM). It was C-RAM that intercepted one of the five missiles launched by the Islamic State in Khorasan (IS-K) at the airport. At a news conference, US Central Command Commander Gen. Kenneth McKenzie said US forces had "disarmed" 73 aircraft, 70 MRAP tactical vehicles and 27 Humvees at Kabul airport before ending the two-week evacuation.
“It's a complex and time-consuming procedure to break down those systems. So we have demilitarized these systems so they can never be used again. We felt that protecting our forces was more important than restoring those systems.”
The United States has supplied Afghan forces with at least 600,000 infantry weapons including M16 assault rifles, 162,000 pieces of communications equipment, and 16,000 night-vision goggles since 2003. The Afghan military has also had thousands of armored vehicles including That's 2000+ Humvees, 600+ M1117s and 160+ M113 armored personnel carriers.
According to a June report published by the US-based Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction, the Afghan military operated 167 "useable/in-country" aircraft including 33 Black Hawks, three C-130 Hercules, 23 An upgraded A-29 Super Tucano to drop laser-guided bombs, 33 AC-208s, 43 MD-530 helicopters, and 32 Mi-17 helicopters. The Afghan Air Force has also ordered more than 100 ScanEagle drones.
An unverified video released by the Talib Times, an outlet claiming to be the "official" news official of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, on August 30 showed a man hanging from a UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter. She tweeted, "Our Air Force! At this time, helicopters of the Air Force of the Islamic Emirate are flying over the city of Kandahar and are patrolling the city.”
A few days ago, a video emerged showing the Taliban "flying test" of a captured Black Hawk helicopter at Kandahar airport.
In response to the alleged use of Black Hawks by the Taliban, Sullivan said, "Black Hawks were not delivered to the Taliban. They were given to the Afghan National Security Forces to be able to defend themselves at the specific request of President [Ashraf] Ghani, who came to the Oval Office and requested additional air capabilities, among other things."
Banks said the Taliban now have more than 85% of the world's Black Hawk helicopters.
