Posted on 05/21/2006 6:51:07 PM PDT by 1066AD
US sets up £215m deal for Afghan arms - from Russia By Thomas Harding, Defence Correspondent (Filed: 22/05/2006)
American defence officials have secretly requested a "prodigious quantity" of ammunition from Russia to supply the Afghan army in case a Democrat president takes over in Washington and pulls out US troops.
The Daily Telegraph can disclose that Pentagon chiefs have asked arms suppliers for a quote on a vast amount of ordnance, including more than 78 million rounds of AK47 ammunition, 100,000 rocket-propelled grenades and 12,000 tank shells - equivalent to about 15 times the British Army's annual requirements.
The Bush administration is said to want the deal because of worries that the next president could be a Democrat, possibly Hillary Clinton, who may abandon Afghanistan.
White House insiders fear that Afghanistan could "drift" and consequently, they want heavily to arm President Hamid Kharzai's government before the 2008 US presidential election.
Diplomatic sources also believe that the US may be offering the estimated $400 million (£215 million) deal, including transport costs, to the Russians as an inducement to embargo its arms and nuclear technology exports to Iran.
Defence specialists said Russian arms chiefs at first "fell about laughing" because they thought the order was a joke when it arrived this month.
But with the Americans said to be pressing for a price and earliest delivery date, the request is being rapidly processed and exports could begin before the end of this year.
The "decade's worth" of ammunition will give the Afghan National Army a vast arsenal to deal with Taliban or drug warlords if Washington withdraws its troops.
It would allow Kabul to defend its borders against outside interference but could also be used for offensive operations against neighbours such as the old enemy, Pakistan.
"This is a request for a price indication from the Pentagon to the Russians," said an arms source connected to Russia. "After that comes back they will look at their budget and turn it into an order - and it will be an order of huge magnitude.
"The operations and planning staff at the Pentagon came up with numbers for their wish list.
"The final order may be more or may be less but the broad aim is to spend the budget while they can. They want to stack the country up with ammunition.
"It's the equivalent of buying yourself a plane to fly to Le Touquet for lunch and you get yourself a 747 jumbo instead of a light aircraft."
All of the material will come from Rosoboron Exports, the sole state intermediary agency for Russia's military exports.
Most Afghan weaponry is either Soviet era or compatible with Russian munitions, making shipments from Western countries unnecessary. Rosoboron is one of a few companies that could handle such a big order and should give favourable prices.
The Afghan army is 35,000 strong but is expected to grow to 70,000 trained soldiers by 2009.
Its troops are already beginning to receive advanced infantry training - the American order includes 50 million blank rounds - with soldiers specialising in artillery and special forces work.
The order also suggests the Afghan army will be equipped with T62 tanks, Mi24 Hind attack helicopters and Spandrel anti-tank missiles.
If fully trained it will provide a formidable force against insurgents and potential foreign aggressors, including Pakistan where tensions are high on the southern border.
"This is completely refitting the Afghan army for the long term and it should stop a resurgence of the Taliban in its tracks," a British arms expert said. "The order will take a year to make and deliver but the Russians are used to large quantities."
A senior British officer said: "The point of getting Afghanistan up and running is so they can take on their own operations.
"This deal makes sense if we are going to hand over military control to them."
Some observers pointed to the irony of the deal, because when the Soviet Union occupied Afghanistan the Americans sold Stinger surface-to- air missiles to the Mujahideen to enable them to shoot down Moscow's aircraft.
Going to be a while before we see Wolf brand in any quantity again methinks.
This sort of smells..... The Russians laughed at the order? Like we ordered 78 million rounds of 7.62 as a hedge against Russian investment in Iran and only the supply clerks were the first to know about it?
The US does not lead in Afghanistan. The control is passed from NATO country to NATO country. Apparently they feel it is worth the sacrifice
If the US became anouther cookie cutter Euro weenie state, I think the Aussies and the Canadians and Merkels Germans would press the issue
This is very smart.
Looks like this can happen again.
CWII Ping!
Maybe not. The *Wolf Gold* ammo is produced by Privi Partizan in Serbia, not Russia. And much of the ammo on the US market isn't in military packaging or using original military projectiles.
Though there's a good bunch of former Soviet 5,45x39mm and 7N1 7.62x54R military ammo now available through Chestnut Ridge, Ammoman and others. If you need it later, get it now.
Makes a good trunk or almost a throwaway gun.
I'm sure somewhere there is an old government-employed veteran of the Afghan-Russian War getting a huge laugh at the irony of this situation.
"The Daily Telegraph can disclose that Pentagon chiefs have asked arms suppliers for a quote on a vast amount of ordnance, including more than 78 million rounds of AK47 ammunition, 100,000 rocket-propelled grenades and 12,000 tank shells - equivalent to about 15 times the British Army's annual requirements."
This is a blunder. If Hillary becomes President and pulls the US out of Afghanistan, the people the Afghans will be fighting will be allies of the Russians. I am very suspicious that the Russians would sabotage this arms shipment in various ways. We should just crank up our own factories and give them the stuff they need, if that is the plan. Not a bad idea to give them a supply and of weapons and ammo---I just disagree with getting it from the Russians.
What a huge waste of money that would be.... tooling up to make new soviet style weapons, when noone except for the afghans would use em?
The poles, hungarians, czechs, romanians, serbs, indians, egyptians, chinese, israelis, ukrainians, kazakhs, and who knows who else makes this stuff.
Why not just buy it from ANYONE?
The logistics of security, storage and distribution are somewhat daunting, btw.
Makes a good trunk or almost a throwaway gun.
Just so, though a very slightly different Finnish variant is a better pick for use in my old M28-30 Finn versions of the Mosin-Nagant, which have .308 diameter bores and are neither *throwaway guns* nor *80-90 bucks a pop.* But for me, they're worth it.
THe good Nagants are now reaching the price level of a good '98 Mauser, the current bargain version of which is the Yugoslav/Serbian M98-48, which can generally be found in the $95-$150 range. I got a little luckier with mine, missing the trigger guard and magazine follower/spring, which I replaced for under $10.00. Not bad for a $75 rifle with a new bore.
The Yugo M48 and M48A rifles also available may be a little prettier, but the M98-48 version offers interchangability of all parts with the wartime German K98k. The stocks and a few other bits on the M48s and M48As are a little different.
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