Within days of the United States’ withdrawal from Afghanistan, critics of the operation seized upon the false claim that the Administration Biden left behind a $ 83 billion arsenal of high-tech weapons for the Taliban to claim. Worse still, critics say, the equipment has intelligence value to America’s enemies such as Russia and China. In reality, the value of the dozens of airplanes, thousands of ground vehicles, and hundreds of thousands of small arms is questionable at best.
According to the graph, the Taliban inherited 22,107 Humvees, 789 wheeled armored vehicles, 169 armored vehicles with tracks and 50,000 vehicles and light trucks. They also received more than half a million machine guns, assault rifles, and 176 artillery pieces. In terms of military electronics, they got 162,043 radios and 16,035 pairs of night vision goggles.
Despite these numbers, the biggest problem facing the new Taliban regime is that once the spare parts are used up, vehicles and weapons will be useless without being able to be used. The country does not have an arms factory of any kind and it must import everything it has.
President Biden’s catastrophic withdrawal from Afghanistan resulted in scores of Americans being left behind and the Taliban acquiring an $ 85 billion US-taxpayer funded arsenal. Congress must assert its oversight authority and investigate this breach of our national security. pic.twitter.com/A7g4SH0Whe
– Rep. Russ Fulcher (@RepRussFulcher) September 2, 2021