US troops disabled nearly 100 combat vehicles and dozens of aircraft before officially withdrawing from Afghanistan. However, the Taliban still control a significant amount of American weaponry after Afghan security forces quickly crumbled last month amid advances by the organization.
A US defense official speaking on conditions on anonymity said the Taliban's supply of US equipment is "enormous."
According to Fox News, the Taliban have not been quiet about their newfound armory. Thirty-eight airplanes, thirteen helicopters and seven unmanned aerial vehicles have been identified and verified to be in use by the Taliban. The new regime also took control of thousands of US-supplied assault weapons and military ground vehicles, as well as artillery arms and night-vision goggles.
Earlier this week, a video depicts a US UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter flying over Afghanistan, accompanied by the following message: "Our Air Force! At this time, the Islamic Emirate's air force helicopters are flying over Kandahar city and patrolling the city."
Another video depicts a helicopter flying over the Taliban flag and what appears to be a convoy that had seized US military vehicles and equipment.
The US spent a reported $83 billion over two decades to train and build up Afghanistan's military. Despite the costs incurred, the Pentagon showed little concern as they said nothing of real value was lost.
"We are not concerned with the loss of any significant technological or sensitive capability," said Pentagon spokesman Eric Pahon. "While seizing this equipment may be beneficial to the Taliban, it does not represent a threat to the US, allies or partners."
Other military experts note the difficulty of flying and maintaining these armaments. "The ability for those birds to continue to fly in the long term is going to be very challenging," said former Air Force officer John Venable, who previously led combat flights in Afghanistan. "It's spare parts reliant, and that flow was cut off," he continued.
US military and intelligence agencies misjudged the viability of the Afghan forces they trained, who, in some cases, surrendered their equipment instead of fighting the Taliban.
"Money can't buy will. You cannot purchase leadership," said Pentagon spokesperson John Kirby in August.
According to the Office of the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction, about $83 billion of the approximately $145 billion spent by the US government to rebuild Afghanistan went towards building and sustaining the country's army and police forces.
Retired Army lieutenant general Doug Lute who helped direct Afghan war strategy during the Bush and Obama administrations, said that what the Afghans received in physical resources they lacked in ideology.
"The principle of war stands — moral factors dominate material factors," he said. "Morale, discipline, leadership, unit cohesion are more decisive than numbers of forces and equipment. As outsiders in Afghanistan, we can provide materials, but only [the] Afghans can provide the intangible moral factors."
"If we wouldn't have used hope as a course of action, ... we would have realized the rapid drawdown of US forces sent a signal to the Afghan national forces that they were being abandoned," said Chris Miller, who was acting secretary of defense during the Trump administration and saw combat in Afghanistan in 2001.
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