Department of Defense (DOD) officials discuss a surveillance report that warns that the Afghan Air Force will surely collapse if the U.S. withdraws troops from the country, according to documents obtained exclusively by the Daily Caller News Foundation. It seems like they haven’t.
In 2022, the Center for American Security Advancement (CASA) filed a public records request seeking copies of Department of Defense official communications discussing the January 2021 Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR). report He warned that the Afghan air force is overly dependent on U.S. contractors and would therefore collapse without a U.S. presence. However, documents obtained by the DCNF and provided by the Department of Defense upon request make no mention of the report, even though the predictions were found to be accurate after the withdrawal of U.S. troops in August of that year. It wasn’t.
The U.S. troop withdrawal ended in August 2021, as Taliban forces rapidly overran Afghan territory and closed in on the capital, Kabul. The complete collapse of Afghanistan’s security forces and the inability of the country’s air force to assume the role previously held by US air power led to a complete Taliban takeover, the Associated Press reported. report Shortly after the report was declassified.
SIGAR warned in its report that the Afghan Air Force cannot operate without continued training, maintenance and financial support and remains overly dependent on external contractors.
According to the report, SIGAR did not declassify the report until January 2022, a year after its initial publication.
CASA obtained the records through a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request. According to the request, the document, which is only 11 pages long and partially duplicated, spans the period from SIGAR’s submission of the then-classified report to the Department of Defense to the date of the FOIA request in January 2022. It spans a wide range of areas. (Related: Biden believes “no one made a mistake” in withdrawing from Afghanistan, new book claims
CASA requested “all communications within and among Department of Defense personnel related to this SIGAR report,” including guidance on public relations strategies and engagement with outside federal agencies surrounding the report.
Most of the records obtained by CASA briefly referenced SIGAR’s January 2021 quarterly report, rather than the report discussing the Afghan Air Force (AAF). Some discussed the European Union’s statement condemning kidnapping and destruction of property. Those in the email chain (then-Defense Department spokesman John Kirby, chief of staff Kelly Magsamen, and then-special military assistant Lt. Gen. Brian Fenton) said U.S. airstrikes had increased for a second time. They were concerned about the public’s reaction to the data in the quarterly report, which pointed out that Consecutive quarters.
“The Pentagon’s own response documents show there was no meaningful discussion of the SIGAR report. The United States has spent 20 years, 2,000 American lives, and billions of dollars fighting the war in Afghanistan. “It is alarming to think that it was closed without considering all available information, including the report from the Special Inspector General,” said CASA Administrator James Fitzpatrick. said in a statement.
Since 2010, the U.S. government has provided $8.5 billion to the Afghan Air Force and Special Mission Wing to support its self-reliance, SIGAR wrote in the report’s foreword. Although pilot training and operational capabilities improved significantly over the next decade, the Air Force continued to rely heavily on outside contractors to provide practical instructions to pilots and equipment maintainers.
SIGAR’s New Lessons Learned Report “What We Must Learn: Lessons from 20 Years” #Afghanistan “Reconstruction” examines the past two decades of U.S. reconstruction efforts in Afghanistan.https://t.co/59SOd9qCML pic.twitter.com/iPeZtok50Q
— Cigar (@SIGARHQ) August 17, 2021
U.S. advisers believed that neither the AAF nor the Afghan military’s Special Task Forces (SMW) were “capable of sustaining themselves without continued advisory and support.” [contractor logistic support] support,” SIGAR said.
But if U.S. troops are no longer present to provide security, the contractors are likely to leave, the report said.
“With the potential withdrawal of U.S. and allied forces, as well as contractors, from Afghanistan, the AAF and SMW will not receive the support they need to sustain and develop the Afghan Air Force unless alternative sources of supply are identified. may not be possible,” the report states. “A sustainable Afghan air force requires more than simply providing pilots and crews trained by the U.S. government to fly combat missions in aircraft purchased and maintained by the U.S. government. The lack of focus by the United States and Afghans on non-combat support activities jeopardizes the development of Afghanistan’s independent and self-reliant air capabilities.”
“Furthermore, both military advisors and contractors may be absent before the AAF and SMW staff, manage, finance, and sustain the force, putting the entire U.S. investment in the Afghan Air Force at risk. ”SIGAR writes.
According to the Associated Press, Afghan aircraft continued to attack Taliban positions through July 2021, but were unable to stop the Taliban’s advance. Afghan officials had also warned that fighter jets were running low on ammunition and most were unable to take off.
The Training, Advisory and Assistance Command Air Force (TAAC-Air), an organization comprised of U.S. and NATO personnel and U.S. contractors, has established an organization in the event of a U.S. withdrawal to ensure continued support to the AAF. They responded that they have developed mitigation plans. There was no protection from the U.S. military, comments included in the report’s appendix indicate. It was unclear whether the plan was implemented or completed before the withdrawal in August of the same year.
The Department of Defense did not immediately respond to DCNF’s request for comment.
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