[arpanjha]

The US last night pulled out from the Kabul airport leaving behind some 73 aircraft’s, some 10M $ / a piece (not sure ultimately how much it will add upto) worth of anti aircraft bombing must be lying around / equipments, 27 Humvees, 70 Mine resistant vehicles and so much more!

While the Talibans celebrate this as an independence victory, but as TBhpians we really want to analyse how much usable/unusable equipment the US have left behind into the hands of the Taliban.

In several articles the US claim that they have disabled maximum no. of equipments which will no longer be possible to use, mainly aircrafts, but I wish to know will they somehow be able to use them in a distant future?

I’m also really worried about the ammunition that the US/NATO/British army etc must have left behind in addition to armaments. Aircrafts or no aircraft’s is a bigger picture but equipments like guns/ tankers/ humvees really matter everyday.
No one speaks about them? They just speak about humvees and planes!

Anyone here who can add something? Or throw some light?

[arpanjha]

In continuation to above post, please see the Internet collected pictures which depict the scary picture…

Can some Afghans and some foreigners actually expect to return to their homelands? Despite the selfless sacrifice they have been doing?

[IamNikhil]

As per reports and comments from American Congress members and intelligence operatives, the Taliban (and by default terrorist organisations like ISIS and Pakistan's ISI) now have access to extremely sophisticated equipment, vehicles and military hardware. This can escalate into a massive security risk for neighboring countries like ours. This whole situation is a recipe for disaster.

[iamahunter]

Pulling out at the very last moment is always a huge risk.

One cannot plan for what will be left behind.

I wonder how have they managed to disable all the left behind technology.

Other fear is that now China will have easy access to all this, thanks to their alliance with the Taliban.

As we all know how good are our neighbors at replicating things, it wont take time for them to figure out the way around.

I personally, still can't figure out the actual reason for the US to leave Afghanistan in such state.

[SS80]

I don't know if this would have been a better idea.
Place time bombs in each aircraft, humvee and any large vehicle left behind and once the last plane takes off, let it explode. Probably a remote detonation could have helped. Now situation is similar to monkeys having access to knives and swords.

[crdi]

In one of the.youtube videos about American camps in Afghanistan, many Tata xenons could be seen driven around. Wonder how those reached there! Could be vehicles of logistics contractors or direct supplies to the American camps. Anyways, it was nice to see those there.

[Turbohead]

I've heard from someone many years ago that wars are usually an excuse for arms manufacturers to test out their latest technology in the real world.

It still makes sense today. The US can print money and buy a new set of weapons etc in a justifiable manner because they couldn't 'take back' their existing weapons due to an 'emergency'.

Either way, the real winners are the manufacturers and the real losers are the army men and the people in Afghanistan and around it.

This is a theory I've heard which makes a lot of sense but will remain unverified for obvious reasons regardless if it's true or false.

Take it with a pinch of salt.

Whatever it is, the US is no longer a super power nor a dependable country by any means.

[girishv]

Originally Posted by arpanjha

Aircrafts or no aircraft’s is a bigger picture but equipments like guns/ tankers/ humvees really matter everyday.
No one speaks about them? They just speak about humvees and planes!

Anyone here who can add something? Or throw some light?

May be this gives an idea of the vehicles left behind. It's from WA University, so please take it with a pinch of salt.

[arpanjha]

Woah! If that is true, it is an enormous cavalry and almost an army without the soldiers left behind. Indeed it is the soldiers and the Afghan people who are the biggest losers.

[Samurai]

I have heard that high tech military equipment comes with permanent disable feature. Once disabled it can't be brought back to life. How much is that true? American do claim they have disabled it all.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pSHP2no-3bk

[jkrishnakj]

The day they claimed it’s all disabled, the taliban hung a translator, who worked for the Americans. And he was hanging from a BlackHawk. God knows what the Americans disabled.

[SideView]

We mere mortals do not understand the bigger play behind all these wars and money been spend. What did they achieve after 2 decades of war and trillions of dollars been spend. Only losers here are people of afghanistan.

You are telling me that with proper planning these huge multi million equipments couldnt be evacuated on time? (Who are you kidding US!!)

These wars just act to justify huge money plays and arsenal left behind is just to create unrest in the area. Which leads to more wars and more weapon purchases. Who is gaining out of all this? (You guessed it)

[srini1785]

Look at this this way:

US till date has spent $2Trillion on Afghanistan. This expenditure includes, but not limited to :

1. 20 Cargo Planes for $486.00 Mio. Dearth of qualified maintenance staff meant they had to be scrapped for $32,000.00.

2. $8.4 Billion for counter narcotics program. Afghanistan produced record heroin during US occupation.

3. $486,000.0 for Afghan Police training academy building. This just melted in rain due to poor construction.

4. $335.00 Mio for power plants when the average household outside of Kabul did not even have distribution towers.

5. Financing a massive corrupt bureaucracy which just swallowed all aid meant for welfare starting with the Head of Govt, who just fled.

The above are just some examples of massive American style expenditure which just evaporated. Not to forget the Human cost that US Corps paid in terms of loss of life. We are not even considering the cost of the humanitarian crisis in terms of resettling and providing for the Unskilled refugee population.

Sometime you just have to pull the plug. So what the POTUS did was correct.

As regards the leftover equipment, every country needs an army. So Afghans just got their fully equipped showcase army with equipment which they can pull during a parade using bullock carts.

PS: As long as there are no nuclear tipped war heads, i would not worry.

[Samurai]

People who maintained these equipment were all from developing countries. I know it because two of my second cousins worked as Mechanics in Kuwait (for Iraq war) and Bagram Air Base (for Afghan war), maintaining anything that moved or flew. That means Afghans can attract such mechanics (may be not from India) from Pakistan and other Islamic countries to come and maintain them again.

So the real question is did USA really disable their equipment beyond redemption? Can these highly trained mechanics bring them back to life?

[mac187]

I maybe wrong, but the whole claim of a Taliban airforce is far fetched. Its one thing to get you hands on high tech equipment like Choppers and Transport planes, its entirely another to maintain and service it with parts. The likely scenario is these will be sold off to Chinese who would be interested in reverse engineering the tech.

The biggest issue is the guns and other personnel equipment. These are the real concern to India as they will soon find its way across the border.