Pakistan to get leftover Afghan war equipment: Defence Secretary

Sea Eagle

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Defense Secretary Asif Yasin Malik on Monday said Pakistan would be receiving the United States' leftover military hardware after the completion of withdrawal of its forces from Afghanistan later this year.
Malik said allied forces had not spoken of handing over equipment to Afghanistan, adding that Pakistan would be receiving the military hardware.
He further said that only after going through the equipment would Pakistan decide what it wants to keep from the remaining supplies.

US reviewing Pakistan's request
A statement issued by the US embassy on Monday said military equipment that has been determined to be excess can be made available through the worldwide excess defence articles (EDA) program, which is open to all eligible countries, including Afghanistan and Pakistan. This equipment will not be brought back with US forces from Afghanistan as they redeploy elsewhere, it added.
The embassy further stated that the US assists Pakistan "through many security cooperation programs to build partnership capacity and Pakistan has requested a variety of Excess Defence Articles (EDA)".
"The US is currently reviewing Pakistan's request for EDA. If approved, this EDA is likely to be sourced from US stock outside Afghanistan," the statement said.
The Department of Defence manages the process for identifying recipients for excess defence articles with State Department approval.
"The decisions of who receives EDA are made on a case-by-case basis taking into consideration a range of factors including the need of potential recipients, regional security dynamics, how the recipient nations intend to use the equipment and the ability of an EDA recipient to sustain the equipment. Final determinations of EDA are still being made," the statement said.


Flip flop?
Earlier, a statement issued by the US-led International Security Assistance Force (Isaf) had said the "United States Forces-Afghanistan does not provide or intend to provideany such equipment, including MRAPs (mine-resistant ambush-protected vehicles), from Afghanistan to Pakistan".
Isaf commander Gen Joseph Dunford had stated: "Our commitment to the Afghan people and the Afghan National Security Forces is unwavering."
The statement had followed uproar in Afghanistan over reports that the US had planned to transfer some of its excess equipment to Pakistan.
Reports about the transfer of equipment had hit headlines after a testimony by Gen Dunford before the US Senate Armed Service Committee in which he had said that the US was planning to give 1,200 MRAP vehicles to Pakistan, Afghanistan and other allies.
There are around 1,600 such vehicles in Afghanistan.
"We're in the process right now of seeing if there are any of our allies that can use those vehicles"¦I've put a stop on any destruction of any vehicles except those that are battle-damaged," Gen Dunford had told the panel.
The US had been offering the equipment free of cost to its allies, which would have been required only to pay for its transportation. About 20 countries, including Pakistan, had initially expressed interest in getting MRAP vehicles, but many backed out because of huge cost of transportation involved. Because of continuing militancy and common borders with Afghanistan, Pakistan was considered the most potential candidate for the vehicles along with Afghanistan itself.

DAWN.COM
 
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bennedose

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India asks U.S to Sell mine-resistant vehicles to be left behind in Afghanistan | idrw.org

In a bid to avoid a Sukma like disaster — where 16 paramilitary security personnel were killed in a Maoist ambush in Chhattisgarh — the government has decided to approach Washington to purchase state-of-the-art mine resistant ambush protected (MRAP) vehicles, which the US forces will leave behind in Afghanistan after they pull-out of the country this year.

The spadework for the acquisition has already begun through the foreign military sales route with Pentagon inclined to sell "excess defence articles" to India rather than be captured by Taliban forces after the drawdown.
While South Block has asked its officials to prepare for the specifications of the MRAPs, there are five categories of some 3,800 vehicles currently in Afghanistan. Called Cougar or Buffalo, these more than 14-tonne vehicles with V-shaped hulls, have minimised the US forces casualties in improvised explosive device blasts and ambush, both in Iraq and Afghanistan.

US has given some 20 such vehicles to Pakistan under the coalition support programme. The V-shaped hulls that can deflect blasts from more than 150 kg IEDs — routinely used by Indian Maoists — have a six-inch thick bullet-proof glass, can run on flat tires and have a maximum speed of up to 100 kmph.

"The Americans first offered the MRAPs to defence ministry some years ago without avail. This time the request has come from home ministry as these vehicles will help in transportation of troops as well as improve patrolling on the main highways in south Chhattisgarh," said a senior ministry of external affairs official.

Although the casualties in the Tongpal ambush were partly due to violation of standard operating procedures by the security forces and in spite of actionable intelligence, it was decided at a high-level meeting chaired by Union home minister Sushilkumar Shinde that troopers needed extra protection with Maoists using planned attacks and area weapons. It was then that the MEA was alerted to approach Pentagon for sale of MRAPs under the bilateral Homeland Security programme.
 

Sea Eagle

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So here's my distribution scheme:

-> 1,200 to Pakistan
-> 300-350 to Afghan
-> 100-50 to India :D
 

Yusuf

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India should buy all of them. Win win for the US. They get money for something they'd junk otherwise. All the US has to do is deliver them all on the border with Iran.

We can gift some to Afghans. None should go to Pak
 

Srinivas_K

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India should buy all of them. Win win for the US. They get money for something they'd junk otherwise. All the US has to do is deliver them all on the border with Iran.

We can gift some to Afghans. None should go to Pak
I think we should go for Mahindra or TATA and should buy some equipment.

The main Challenge is job creation by manufacturing ... USA would definitely like to sell some of the equipment.
 

AVERAGE INDIAN

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hmm we have our own Kanchan amour or some composite amour and we have companies that can build heavy trucks why can we build a decent MRAP on an 6X6 or 8x8 truck chassis is it that complicated for present day Defense industry to build some :shocked: if the pakis want to have them let them or who ever why do we have to degrade our selves when we have the tech to build them :tsk:
 

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