Taliban Wants To Build Afghanistan’s Air Defenses With Russia’s Help

[SteppeWolff]

This is also an excellent opportunity for us to collaborate with Ukraine in regards to our drone programs.

Send them a month stock of Grads too. If Russians dont want to play nicely, we shouldn't aswell.

 

[hasssanali8998]

I think Russia never stopped JF-17 engines

becaseu we never got the engines from them , we got them from china and support from ukraine

blatantly said that it has ceased cooperation with Pak and wants to increase its partnership with India.

i would really like to see a source for that , because they have always been good to us

 

[Sinnerman108]

Taliban Wants To Build Afghanistan’s Air Defenses With Russia’s Help​

ByPaul Iddon,

Senior Contributor.
Paul Iddon is a freelance journalist focused on Middle East affairs.

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Sep 10, 2024, 11:58am EDT

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A picture shows a Russian Pantsir-S1 anti-aircraft defence system at the Russian Hmeimim military base in Latakia province, in the northwest of Syria, on December 16, 2015. (PAUL GYPTEAU/AFP via Getty Images)
AFP via Getty Images
Amidst warming ties between its regime and Russia, the Taliban have expressed its intent to build Afghanistan’s air defenses with Russian equipment. And while Moscow has appeared willing to arm the Houthis in Yemen and even Hezbollah in Lebanon with advanced missiles in recent months, it may not prove so willing for the current ruling regime in Kabul.

In early 2023, less than two years after reconquering Afghanistan amidst a chaotic U.S. withdrawal, the Taliban allotted the largest share of Afghanistan’s budget to defense, expressing its aim to build air defenses.

“Anti-aircraft missiles are the need of countries,” Qari Fasihuddin Fitrat, a Taliban commander and chief of army staff, was quoted as saying by Reuters in April 2023.

“There is no doubt that Afghanistan is trying, and doing its best, to have it,” he added but did not elaborate on how the Taliban could acquire such missiles.

However, in an Aug. 29 interview with Russia’s state-run Tass news agency, General Sayed Abdul Basir Saberi, head of the logistics department of Afghanistan’s Taliban-controlled Ministry of Defense, was much more direct.

“I think we need air defense and airspace control equipment. We have ground equipment. I think we will purchase [such products] from you at the international level, when there are [international legal] conditions for this,” Saberi said.

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“In the future, we plan to buy Russian-made equipment that will enable us to create an air defense,” he added. “We would like to have such weapons, as you are the most advanced country in the world in terms of these technologies.”

It was perhaps inconceivable just a short few years ago that the Taliban might make such a request. But Saberi’s statement comes at a time of warming relations, exemplified by Moscow inviting the group to the St. Petersburg forum in May. Saberi comments suggest the group hopes warming ties could translate into weapons acquisition.

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The statement also comes after Russia recently showed a willingness to arm the Houthis with anti-ship missilesand reportedly transfer a medium-range Pantsir-S1 air defense system to Hezbollah via Syria.

A transfer of Pantsirs to the Taliban, or short and medium-range systems like the Buk and Tor, would undoubtedly alarm the United States. Since withdrawing in August 2021, the U.S. assassinated al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri with an “over-the-horizon” drone strike on downtown Kabul, where the Taliban were hosting him as their guest.

Improved air defenses in Afghanistan could complicate such drone operations. In March, the Taliban said U.S. drones were patrolling and “violating” the country’s airspace.

On the same day Saberi’s interview was published, Aug. 29, Iraqi forces shot down a Turkish Aksungur drone over Kirkuk, apparently using one of their Pantsir-S1s to do so.

There is also the dire risk that any air defense Russia supplied the group could endanger civil aviation. Afghan airspace has become a major route between Europe and Asia, with many airliners that had avoided it for years increasing their number of flights over the country amidst heightened tensions in the Middle East between Israel and Iran.

While that situation may prove temporary, one cannot dismiss out of hand the risk of a fatal accidental shootdown. After all, it was only in January 2020 that neighboring Iran shot down a Ukrainian airliner above Tehran with a Russian Tor missile amidst heightened tensions with the United States.

Pavel Luzin, a non-resident senior fellow with the Democratic Resilience Program at the Center for European Policy Analysis, doubts Russia will sell the Taliban advanced weaponry anytime soon, describing Saberi’s interview as a “sweet speech” for the ears of the Kremlin.

“The Taliban would like to get some air defense systems, but it is not ready to purchase them yet,” Luzin told me. “Despite the fact that Russia has a long-term experience of arms supplies just for free, some wishful thinking takes place here.”

“Russia is a global trouble-maker with openly and officially declared purposes of undermining the U.S. global leadership and the whole global order,” he said.

As part of these declared purposes, Luzin explained that Russia has shown readiness to deal with “any types of global criminal junk,” ranging from North Korea to the Taliban to the Houthis and warlords in Africa.

On the other hand, he pointed out that Russia cannot export sophisticated conventional weapons like Pantsir and Tor systems since it has lost so much hardware in Ukraine, with the Russian military industry struggling to replace heavy losses.

Furthermore, any air defense deal would not consist of Russia merely delivering the system off the shelf.

“The only possible way of supplying air defense systems like Buk, Tor, or Pantsir in Afghanistan is supplying them together with crews,” Luzin said. “The problem is that the Taliban forces are not very well educated to deal with the systems.”

“So, if you see Russia’s ‘Buk’ or ‘Pantsir’ near Kabul or Kandahar, that inevitably means that it is operated by the Russian military.”

Taliban can want, all they can.
That doesn't mean their wish will come true.

Supplying AA system to Taliban is something Russians are far too prudent to do.
There is nothing to be gained from this, except for antagonizing Pakistan as well as China.

 

[hasssanali8998]

Lol so you're handling all your states perfectly?

Atleast our passengers travel peacefully on trains and we can open a thread on Indian railways.... our pride palace on the wheels... your pride Jaffer express....

if this isnt ban worthy i dont know what is
@Fatman17 @Waz @Musings

 

[KingQamaR]

How are even Afghans gonna pay for expenses AD, and its sustainment? Also, training and relevant infrastructure? Its not like few systems are gonna establish a viable IADS to stop Pakistan.

Sending poor Afghans to the Donbass meat grinder is gonna get them few pieces at max.

Russia will be getting access to Afghanistan rare minerals as a payment for weapons and for training. Moscow and Kabul then become close partners. Kabul gets an umbrella of security from Moscow from any external threats ???

 

[hasssanali8998]

If Pakistan can supply arms and ammunition to Ukraine, then Russia can also supply MANPADS and air guns to Afghanistan.

u better have the same opinion when these retards shoot down a airliner

 

[Dalit]

Lol so you're handling all your states perfectly?

Atleast our passengers travel peacefully on trains and we can open a thread on Indian railways.... our pride palace on the wheels... your pride Jaffer express....

 

[Distant_Observer]

The Pakistan Air Force (PAF) possesses approximately 155 active JF-17 fighters, out of roughly 170 to 185 total units produced for their fleet. The vast majority of Pakistan's current operational fleet is powered by Russian-designed engines, though a transition to Chinese powerplants is under evaluation.

View attachment 199583

Time has come to move away from the Russian engine. It would be madness to rely on Russian engines for the JF-17.

Russia will always be serving Indian interests. Pakistan needs to move away from Russia as much as possible.

Should not be relying on any Russian hardware. Should be phased out asap.

Why can't Pakistani engineers just design their own engine?

 

[Dalit]

Russia will be getting access to Afghanistan rare minerals as a payment for weapons and for training. Moscow and Kabul then become close partners. Kabul gets an umbrella of security from Moscow from any external threats ???

It is in Pakistan's best interest to keep these Taliban cave b@stards in disarray.

 

[Dalit]

Should not be relying on any Russian hardware. Should be phased out asap.

Why can't Pakistani engineers just design their own engine?

The Chinese engine is perfect. Designing and producing an engine is not a joke.

It is an outrage that Pakistan is still opting for Russian engines. I can understand that initially Pakistan had no choice. Today the WS-13 is the best alternative.

 

[Goenitz]

becaseu we never got the engines from them , we got them from china and support from ukraine

i know, but Russia knows the end user, and China do not use Mig or any RD93 engine. Russia could refuse over the supply issue etc,. but Russia didn't do that.

i would really like to see a source for that , because they have always been good to us

I tried to find. I saw it on TV news. The closer I got is from AI:
AI Overview
Former Ukrainian Defence Minister Yuriy Yekhanurov (2007-09) actively expanded defense and technical ties with India, particularly focusing on joint military-technical cooperation, aviation, and turbine technology. This pivot was a deliberate strategy to build a strategic partnership with India rather than Pakistan, moving away from Pakistani military engagements. [1]

 

[PAKISTANFOREVER]

It is in Pakistan's best interest to keep these Taliban cave b@stards in disarray.

IF and it's a BIG IF, the russians start mining or industrial operations in afghandustan, we can use our assets there to start blowing up those operations and start mass terrorism there.

 

[Dalit]

IF and it's a BIG IF, the russians start mining or industrial operations in afghandustan, we can use our assets there to start blowing up those operations and start mass terrorism there.

Blow the shit out of them. Do it covertly and overtly.

 

[Goenitz]

IF and it's a BIG IF, the russians start mining or industrial operations in afghandustan, we can use our assets there to start blowing up those operations and start mass terrorism there.

do we know anything else?
those wanna be 'blow up' people can hurt Chinese interests too. Also, China will not be happy us hurting Russia. It was China who warmed relations with Russia, and we started doing joint exercises, Mil 35 deals, etc.
Cooperation here will lead us far away from confrontation, once Sino-Russian investments are there.

 

[PAKISTANFOREVER]

do we know anything else?
those wanna be 'blow up' people can hurt Chinese interests too. Also, China will not be happy us hurting Russia. It was China who warmed relations with Russia, and we started doing joint exercises, Mil 35 deals, etc.
Cooperation here will lead us far away from confrontation, once Sino-Russian investments are there.

Cooperation and diplomacy with the afghandus has only embolden the taliban as they see it as a sign of weakness. This has resulted in the genocide of 80,000 Pakistanis due to afghandu terrorism. afghandus ONLY understand the language of brutality and strength.