Afghan Surveillance Drone Program Worth $174 Million Has Been Plagued by Issues
US Afghan drone program worth $174 million is riddled with issues. Recent report of an independent watchdog harshly criticized the ScanEagle drone program that was meant to give Afghan forces an advantage over the Taliban, but has instead shown few gains.
A recent report by an independent watchdog claimed that the U.S. Military spent at least $174 million between 2015–2019 on the Afghan drone program meant to train and equip their forces in combating Taliban fighters. However, the program hasn’t yielded any productive outcome as despite all these years of training, the U.S. Military has been incapable of making Afghan forces able to conduct individual intelligence analysis and operating devices they have been equipped with over their training years.
According to the report from Special Inspector General for Afghanistan, the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) spent this amount to outfit the Afghan security forces with fixed-wing ScanEagle remotely piloted aircraft that provide real-time video streaming. ScanEagle drone is launched by a catapult, lands by flying right into a net, and sounds like a lawnmower. The drone’s digicam beams video to an operator at a close-by base.
The report represents several failures of the DoD to accomplish the Afghan drone program, also known as ScanEagle drone, like inability to judge the immediate and long-term impacts of the investment, how well the program has performed, or whether the Afghan security forces can sustain it. According to the acronyms and tables of the report, the Department of Defense does not have necessary information to track the Afghan drone program, understand and improve the return of $174 million investment.
The ScanEagle drone program began five years ago as part of an effort to enhance the Afghan security forces’ intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance capabilities ahead of the drawdown of international troops. ScanEagle tools & technology has grown to be a problem, too. American officers in Afghanistan advised the inspector common’s workplace that they had been involved and that the Afghan National Army “does not know where the equipment it owns is or whether it is being used appropriately.”
This 50-page report paints a clear picture of the American war efforts in Afghanistan. The Afghan drone program is one of the hundreds of the Pentagon-funded misadventures aimed at molding Afghan security forces into a Western fighting force. Since 2005, the U.S. defense department (DoD) has spent appropriately $47.5 billion on equipment and other military programs for Afghan forces.
The report on Afghan drone program comes in light after the DoD announced that it had reduced its troops in Afghanistan to roughly 8,600 troops and the remaining five bases of the U.S. military, transferring them to Afghan forces, all as part of the peace agreement with the Taliban.
The top Pentagon spokesman, Jonathan Hoffman stated, “The United States honors its obligations, all sides should reduce violence and embark on intra-Afghan negotiations capable of achieving a negotiated and lasting peace for Afghanistan.”
In the past, Taliban forces have claimed a series of major attacks in Afghanistan, including the attack on a hospital in Kabul where militants opened fire at mothers and their newborns, killing 24 people and injuring 68 others.
Direct talks between the Afghanistan government and the Taliban remain stalled amid a dispute over a prisoner’s exchange.
