military operations in Afghanistan as head of U.S. Army General Joseph Votel, who oversaw U.S. 'Ironically, the fact that our equipment breaks down so often is a life-saver here,' a third official said. military to help in the evacuation from Kabul.Ĭurrent and former officials say that while they are concerned about the Taliban having access to the helicopters, the aircraft require frequent maintenance and many are complicated to fly without extensive training. Those en route to Afghan forces will instead be used by the U.S. Some planes were in the United States for maintenance and will stay.

Even before taking power in Kabul over the weekend, the Taliban had started a campaign of assassinating pilots. officials said that between 40 and 50 aircraft had been flown to Uzbekistan by Afghan pilots seeking refuge. In the last week, many of those aircraft were most useful for Afghan pilots to escape the Taliban.

military assistance, and were supposed to be the Afghan military' biggest advantage over the Taliban.īetween 20 the United States provided Afghan forces with 208 aircraft, according to the U.S. The speed with which the Taliban swept across Afghanistan is reminiscent of Islamic State militants taking weapons from U.S.-supplied Iraqi forces who offered little resistance in 2014.īetween 20, the United States gave the Afghan military an estimated $28 billion in weaponry, including guns, rockets, night-vision goggles and even small drones for intelligence gathering.īut aircraft like the Blackhawk helicopters have been the most visible sign of U.S.

List of modern us tanks