Prior to 2021 Taliban already had a large arsenal of soviet wra automatic assault rifles, light and heavy machine guns, RPGs, mortas and handguns.
It is estimated that less than a third of the USD 88 billion spent on the ANDSF went toward materiel including nearly 600,000 small arms and their ammunition.
Between 2017-2019, the US supplied the Afghan military with 7,000 machine guns, and more than 20,000 grenades, and in the past two years alone have given them more than 18 million rounds of ammunition.
Perhaps more significantly, in the period between the announcement of their withdrawal in April 2021 and July 2021, the US provided materiel valued at over USD 212 million to the ANDSF, including rockets, explosives and ammunition.
Much of the ANDSF and US/international equipment, aircraft, vehicles, and weaponry was either destroyed or removed from Afghanistan, a process which began shortly after the Doha Agreement in February 2020.
Some planes were already in the US for maintenance and remained there, but US troops reportedly ‘demilitarized’, or rendered inoperable 73 other aircraft at Kabul airport, as well as 70 Mine-Resistant Ambush Protected vehicles (MRAPs), and 27 Humvees.
Additionally, other US and Afghan air force pilots flew themselves and family members to safety on some of the aircrafts, meaning that roughly 61 fixed-wing aircraft and helicopters were moved to Uzbekistan and Tajikistan.
The Taliban now have access to whatever has been left in the military weapons caches across Afghanistan.
One US official said, ‘everything that hasn’t been destroyed is the Taliban’s now’.
From just one base the Taliban are known to have acquired 70 sniper rifles and 900 other guns.
Everything the Taliban obtain from takeovers like this they call ghanima (war booty).
This ghanima includes more than just SALW (Small Arms Light Weapons)
Over 160,000 radios and pieces of communication equipment were supplied by the US, as well as around 16,000 night-vision goggle devices.
The machine guns, mortars, and artillery pieces acquired have already given the Taliban an advantage against the failed resistance strongholds that once fought in the Panjshir Valley northeast of Kabul.
Other weapons:
Tanks
100(estimated) T62's. Only a handful seen in parades.
Soviet Anti Aircraft Guns (Unknown Quantities)
128 second-hand artillery pieces between 2006 and 2013
159 TOW anti-tank missile in 2009.
In addition to the above it is estimated the Taliban may have somewhere between 232 to 350 m-30 and d-30 towed artillery pieces. The operational readiness of these cannot be confirmed.
Afghanistan had in its inventory multiple Soviet Era Frog7, BM21, BM27 missiles. Always 7 BM21's are operable.
The taliban showcased a SCUD B missile during a parade in 2022
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Regarding the Scud-B missile, it is reported that Taliban militants found the Scud-B ballistic missile and its warhead in the Panjshir Valley in eastern Afghanistan last year.
According to open sources, several hundred of these Scud-B ballistic missile systems were provided to the Afghan government in the 1980s by the communist regime of the Soviet Union as military aid.
The Scud-B is classified as a tactical ballistic missile with a range of up to 300 km, with a possible circular error (CEP) of 450-900 meters. These missiles are designed to attack strategic enemy targets such as airfields, command posts, large concentrations of troops and combat vehicles, air defence batteries, and fuel depots.
There is no information on whether this Scud-B ballistic missile can still operate properly or how many units are feasible to use from the hundreds that exist.
Source: CAR Report
