US Army personnel at Hamid Karzai International Airport, Kabul, Afghanistan. Photo: Reuters.
According to a March 2022 report by the US Department of Defense prepared at the behest of Congress and accessed by CNN, US troops left $7.12 billion worth of military equipment in Afghanistan.
The document indicates that these weapons are now in the hands of the Taliban and that the Pentagon will not return to the Asian country to recover or destroy them.
Between 2005 and 2021, arms worth $18.6 billion were sent to Afghanistan.
Airplanes, air-to-ground munitions, military vehicles, weapons, communications equipment and other war material make up this arsenal, which was abandoned after US troops left.
9,524 air-to-surface munitions worth $6.54 million were left in Afghanistan, although the report says most are not accurate.
The US military also abandoned 78 aircraft worth $923.3 million at Kabul International Airport, which were demilitarized and left idle before withdrawal, and more than 40,000 military vehicles, including 12,000 Humvee.
Most communication devices – around 42,000 in total – are night vision, surveillance, biometrics and location; and include commercial and military radio systems, transmitters and encoders.
They also left behind in that country 17,500 explosives detection devices, “electronic countermeasures” and personal protective equipment.
The report showed that five Mi-17 helicopters that were in Afghanistan were officially transferred to Ukraine this year.
Other equipment transferred to Kyiv that the United States had purchased but not shipped for use in Afghanistan included 37,000 howitzer shells, more than 15 million rounds of rifle ammunition, about 99,000 grenade shells, and about 119,000 82mm mortar rounds.
(With information from RT in Spanish)