Donald Trump attacked the Taliban as being “one of the biggest sellers of military equipment in the world” on Wednesday, saying that “70,000 armour plated vehicles” were being sold by the group to foreign buyers, which were left behind by US forces during the fall of Kabul in August 2021.
“We left billions, tens of billions of dollars worth of equipment behind, brand new trucks. You see them display it every year, on their little roadway, someplace where they have a road and they drive … waving the flag and talking about America … that’s all the top of the line stuff,” he said, before adding that the equipment was being sold on.
Mr Trump is correct that the value of US-supplied equipment left behind in Afghanistan is worth billions, although the actual amount of equipment operated by US forces and then abandoned amounted to about 100 armoured vehicles, including 70 Mine-Resistant Armoured Personnel Carriers worth about $500,000 each.
The Taliban’s parades, referenced by Mr Trump, which include flyovers of US-made Blackhawk helicopters that cost up to $15 million each, comprise equipment abandoned by the defunct Afghan National Security Forces, which was given many thousands of US armoured vehicles, as well as night vision equipment, radios, helicopters and light attack aircraft.
According to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, 21,924 armoured vehicles were given by the US to Afghanistan between 2001 and 2021.
Many would have been inoperable or destroyed in the conflict by the time of the Taliban takeover. It's not clear if Mr Trump's 70,000 figure also referred to unarmoured military support vehicles and vehicles donated by other countries in Nato.
The US gave Afghan forces about 40,000 unarmoured Ford Ranger light tactical pickup trucks, a rugged version of the civilian vehicle.
Of the aircraft, much was wrecked by departing US forces, or flown to nearby countries by fleeing pilots. But the Taliban nonetheless managed to obtain some functioning Blackhawks, possibly given to them by defecting Afghans. In total, about $7.1 billion worth of US-made equipment was obtained by the group.
The Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction, a US government auditing task force, said at the end of the pullout that “the long-term operability of the vehicles was likely to deteriorate without US contractor maintenance.”
That assessment appears correct in terms of helicopters and in a recent parade, all of the roughly 15 helicopters flying by were of Soviet or Russian origin, mostly Mi-17 transport helicopters and a smaller number of Mi-24 gunships. These were however, purchased by the US from Russia.
Sigar said Afghanistan had 56 Mi-17s, but only about 30 were usable, a figure that is probably lower now due to maintenance challenges, even with Soviet-era aircraft which Afghans have far more experience with than US-made helicopters.
The US assessed in 2022 that only two Blackhawks were still flyable, and that “the Taliban lacks the parts and trained mechanics to maintain them”.
Shot at Biden
Mr Trump’s exaggeration of “tens of billions”, has a political slant related to the bitter row over who is responsible for Afghanistan's collapse. In January he claimed that impoverished Afghanistan would not receive humanitarian support unless the military equipment was returned to the US, military gear he said had been abandoned by former president Joe Biden.
Mr Trump is correct to say however, that a lot of US-made equipment has been passed on – in particular to Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan, the Pakistani branch of the movement.
The Pakistani government, which is fighting the Taliban in the remote, mountainous frontier with Afghanistan, as well as independent arms experts, have confirmed US-made equipment is used by the group.
Some of this, experts say, comes from arms markets, so it is indeed likely that the Taliban profit from these sales, as well as being able to equip their Pakistani allies.
But of the $7.1 billion in equipment left behind, it is clear only a fraction is being sold, based on the Taliban’s impressive parades of hundreds of armoured vehicles, drawn from a vast reserve of gear including thousands of High Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicles (Humvees) and obsolete M113 armoured vehicles.
The value of all these vehicles in 2022 was thought to be about $4.1 billion, but is probably considerably less now. Also, they do not have much use in the rugged terrain of northern Pakistan without good maintenance.
It is still a considerable amount of equipment however: Sigar noted that total US purchases for the Afghan security forces amounted to 258,000 rifles and 31,000 rocket propelled grenades.
While much of this equipment is probably not serviceable, it would (inadequately) equip the British Army more than three times over. If the Taliban chose to sell perhaps half of the equipment at a discount, it would make them a significant arms dealer on the global market and a threat to the region’s security.
But it would not make them a leading arms exporter such as Turkey, which saw $6 billion in revenue from arms sales in 2023 according to the most recent data from SIPRI, South Korea ($11 billion) or Japan ($10 billion), countries which trail far behind the US ($317 billion).
