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| MaxxPro MRAP (Wiki Info - Image: Wiki Commons) |
By Ankit Panda
The United States is considering selling and transferring some of its Afghan War surplus to Pakistan.
One of the main concerns for the Pentagon this year is the potential complete withdrawal from Afghanistan. Should the Bilateral Security Agreement (BSA) between the United States and the Afghan government not end up getting signed, all U.S. troops and hardware will have to leave the country after over 13 years of conflict. In terms of logistical planning, this is a behemoth of a task to undertake. As was reported last week in The Diplomat, the logistical constraints of withdrawing troops are such that General Joseph F. Dunford told the Senate Armed Services Committee that the BSA must be signed by August at the latest, allowing the Pentagon to plan for a withdrawal with ample time.
According to a Washington Post report, one solution the Pentagon is currently considering as it plans to withdraw equipment from Afghanistan is the possibility of unloading some of the hardware with low strategic value for the U.S. to Pakistan. This might include over $7 billion in armored vehicles — particularly the heavy mine-resistant ambush-protected (MRAP) vehicles that would otherwise be burdensome to extract from Afghanistan. The report notes that ” discussions between American and Pakistani officials have been going on for months and center on leftover military hardware that the United States does not want to pay to ship or fly home.”
Read the full story at The Diplomat