The Taliban now has possession of billions of dollars worth of U.S. equipment and weapons, including light guns, military trucks, vans, planes, and UAVs, etc. Post the mediation of surrendering Afghanistan’s military divisions over the second half of august, 2021. However, in the midst of the disarray, American authorities are unsure about exactly how much of the Afghan arsenal has been taken by the Taliban or how much is stored at camps and tiny military outposts throughout the nation. Concerns of the emergence of a local weapons marketplace, which might benefit the terrorist organization and its militants, have surfaced as a result of the ambiguity surrounding the status of a huge armament.
The amount of military aid provided by the United States over the last twenty years is extraordinary, with $83 billion committed to training and equipping an army that eventually disintegrated after years of war defeats. As per a 2017 Government Accountability Office study, America has provided Afghan troops with at least six hundred thousand light weapons, including M-16 and M-4 rifles, 76,000 vehicles, 16,000 night-vision glasses, 162,000 radios, as well as other communication devices since 2003. As shown in a 2020 Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction report, the United States supplied additional 4,700 Humvees, 20,000 grenades, and thousands of smaller weapons as well as grenade launchers between 2017-2019.
Multitudes of rifles and other items of hardware have vanished shortly after being transported to divisions on the ground. Taliban has long boasted about the American-made gear it has gotten its fingers on, these were, however, generally in modest numbers.
The big grab during the last week, including artillery guns and mortars, will provide the terrorists a significant edge against any forces attempting to oppose the Taliban’s power, along with a combination of militia in the north that is already forming. However, without a working maintenance and repair mechanism, their utility may be limited. The US administration is attempting to catalog all of the weaponry abandoned by the withdrawing troops, particularly how much of it is in functioning condition when the terrorists acquired it. Nevertheless, most of the equipment, such as airplanes and communications equipment, will most certainly become unworkable in months.
Without tens of thousands of overseas consultants on board, the Afghan military would be unable to maintain its planes and most of its transport vehicles. The Taliban’s main problem is keeping availability to the proper caliber of bullets, although once the millions of bullets kept for US firearms go dry, they will indeed be able to buy extra on the market. Detailed information about these markets is available online.
