Pentagon: $7B in US Weapons Fell Into Taliban Hands

DID Press: Newly released documents from US Department of Defense reveal that the chaotic and hasty withdrawal of Washington from Afghanistan in 2021 not only led to the collapse of the Kabul government but also left billions of dollars’ worth of U.S.-made military equipment in the hands of the Taliban, highlighting the inefficiency of America’s 20-year military presence.

According to data reported by the Turkish media outlet Haberler, the value of equipment abandoned and captured by the Taliban is estimated at around $7 billion. These assets had been supplied to Afghanistan’s security forces over the years through U.S. training and support programs, but with the sudden fall of Kabul, they were left in bases and airports without oversight or destruction.

The Pentagon report lists thousands of armored and wheeled vehicles, including Humvees and MRAPs, dozens of aircraft and helicopters such as Black Hawks and Super Tucanos, small arms, air-to-ground munitions, communications equipment, and night vision and surveillance systems. The scale of this hardware underscores the extent of advanced U.S. weaponry delivered to Afghanistan over two decades.

In the final days of U.S. presence, a significant portion of this equipment remained in airports and military bases. Many of these vehicles, aircraft, and weapons were left intact and fell entirely into Taliban control, raising serious questions about the management of the U.S. withdrawal and its regional security implications.

Some U.S. policymakers have called for recovering or destroying these assets, but the Taliban has declared the equipment “national property of Afghanistan” with no plans for return, highlighting Washington’s confusion even in managing the consequences of its exit.

The Pentagon report reiterates that America’s long-term presence in Afghanistan failed to bring stability and, with a disorderly withdrawal, inadvertently empowered the very group it claimed to fight for decades. The presence of billions of dollars of U.S.-made equipment in Taliban hands now significantly affects the regional security balance.

Earlier, the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction had also confirmed the deep and structural failure of America’s 20-year mission in the country.