One Month, 700 Humvees and Trucks: Afghanistan’s American Military Vehicles Fall Into Taliban Hands

Humvee nest to Oshkosh ATV

An investigation of imagery postempred on social media concludes that in the month of June alone the Taliban has captured a staggering 700 trucks and Humvees from the Afghan security forces as well as dozens of armored vehicles and artillery systems.

Those shocking numbers reflect that local defense forces in some districts are evaporating in the face of Taliban pressure—sometimes without a fight, due in part to the perception that the government is doomed due to the imminent U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan later this year.

And that in turn implies huge volumes of military equipment donated or sold to Afghanistan to help it fight the Taliban may instead continue pouring into that very group’s hands.

Summing up the Damage

The tally come from a open-source investigative report published at the Oryx blog by Stijn Mitzer and Joost Oliemans. The continuously updated tally has catalogued hundreds of photos posted online by the Taliban of destroyed or captured Afghan military equipment. The blog was earlier distinguished for its detailed open-source investigation on equipment losses in the 2020 Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

As of the evening of June 30, the study found evidence of 715 light vehicles falling into Taliban hands, with another 65 destroyed.  Obviously, there are likely many more lost vehicles that gave gone uncounted due to not being recorded in photos or videos.

The confirmed vehicle losses notably include:

  • 270 Ford Ranger light trucks
  • 141 Navistar International 7000 medium trucks
  • 329 M1151 and cargo-bed configured M1152 Humvees. These variants feature enhanced armor protection and more powerful engines.
  • 21 Oshkosh ATV mine-resistant armor-protected vehicles

For context, in 2018 the Afghanistan’s’ armed forces reportedly operated 26,000 vehicles including 13,000 Humvees of various marks, while Mitzer writes that a total of 25,000 Humvees have been transferred to Afghanistan by 2021. During periods of intensified fighting, the Afghan government typically lost 100 Humvees a week.

If the Taliban can source the necessary fuel, its growing vehicle inventory could improve the group’s operational mobility, ie. its ability to mass forces across Afghanistan. The vehicles may also serve as carriers for heavy support weapons such as mortars, heavy machineguns and recoilless rifles. The Taliban has also used captured Humvees to infiltrate government perimeters to mount deadly suicide bombings.

Armored vehicles losses include a handful of old M113 APCs and Soviet tanks—but also 27 fifteen-ton M1117 armored cars armed with a machineguns and Mark 19 automatic grenade-launchers.

As for artillery, alongside thirteen shorter-range mortars, the Taliban notably captured seventeen 122-millimeter D-30 towed howitzers—the equivalent of an artillery battalion. The Cold War howitzers aren’t hi-tech weapons but they remain deadly and can bombard targets up to 9.6 miles away with conventional shells—a capability likely to be exploited in an urban siege scenario.

The Taliban also destroyed (but didn’t capture) three Mi-17 and one UH-60A transport helicopter in June.

That said, so far documented losses don’t appear to involve sensitive technologies that could compromise U.S. military capabilities or pose a major terrorist threat such as shoulder-launched surface-to-air missiles.

Source: Forbes

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  • Mr Reynard

    Just have fallen from my chair laughing, after reading the above …

  • XSFRGR

    I remember this from Vietnam. It was a tragic disappointment then, but it’s just a joke in poor taste now.

  • Eddyt

    Just goes to prove,puppet Governments installed by occupation forces are not worth a grain of sand, unable to stand without support of their masters.Funny thing though, after TWENTY YEARS of ALLEGEDLY training the Afghan military, no one ever asked any of them, if they would stay and fight as ordered against their own brothers and sisters. I’d say before the year is out, the Taliban will control the whole of Afghanistan, and rightfully so too, and the CIA can kiss their lucrative Heroin trade goodbye.We need to keep a sharp look out, where the CIA intends to establish a replacement supply. That’s where the next conflict will be. May I suggest Ukraine ? After all, we are told they have the richest soil there in all of Europe, and now privately owned to boot.

  • Malatok

    As long as the Chinese are paying for all this Pentacn garbage…all is hunky dory in Slumville USSA.

    Soon however, China will have to pull the chain on the fiat filth IOU Saudi Mercan petroscrip toilet paper dollah…and then who will feed the tatooed mutant retards wallowing around Walfart fro their daily dose of China subsidized free vittels?

    Onward to the collapse of all things anglozionazi, me hearties.

  • Donald Rumsfeldhell

    Can these 7th century bandits handle the required upkeep on these iron hulks including a supply of parts?

    Ever notice how the neocon-artist architects of the Bush wars have vanished? Wolfowtiz, Frum, Kristol et al.

  • B. Lokey

    So, which empire will rush in to fill the void? The VOID must be filled. Perhaps China or Taiwan… Buy I certainly won’t do it. I’m busy petting my puppy.