United States tries to sell military equipment and MRAPs armoured vehicles used in Afghanistan 01041

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Defence & Security News - United States
 
 
Tuesday, April 1, 2014 11:54 AM
 
United States tries to sell military equipment and MRAPs armoured vehicles used in Afghanistan.
The United States is trying to sell or dispose of billions of dollars in military hardware, including sophisticated and highly specialized mine resistant vehicles as it packs up to leave Afghanistan after 13 years of war, officials said Monday, March 31, 2014. But the efforts are complicated in a region where relations between neighboring countries are mired in suspicion and outright hostility.
     
The United States is trying to sell or dispose of billions of dollars in military hardware, including sophisticated and highly specialized mine resistant vehicles as it packs up to leave Afghanistan after 13 years of war, officials said Monday, March 31, 2014. But the efforts are complicated in a region where relations between neighboring countries are mired in suspicion and outright hostility.
A U.S. soldier stands near mine-resistant, ambush-protected vehicles at Forward Operating Base Farah in Afghanistan.
     

A statement by the U.S. Embassy in Pakistan said Islamabad is interested in buying used U.S. equipment. The statement said Pakistan's request is being reviewed but any equipment it receives, including the coveted mine resistant vehicles, will not likely come from its often angry neighbor Afghanistan.

An earlier U.S. Forces statement was definite: Pakistan would not get any U.S. equipment being sold out of Afghanistan.

Mark Wright, Department of Defense spokesman, told The Associated Press in a telephone interview that the U.S. would like to sell to "nearby countries" the equipment that is too costly to ship back home.

Among the items for sale are 800 MRAPs, highly sophisticated Mine Resistant Ambush Protected armored vehicles. Selling them off could mean a savings of as much as $500 million and hundreds of millions of dollars in revenues, he said. The computerized MRAPs have been used by U.S. service personnel in Iraq and Afghanistan, as protection against the deadly roadside bombs used relentlessly by insurgents.

Earlier this month the head of coalition forces in Afghanistan, Gen. Joseph F. Dunford told a Pentagon briefing that Pakistan would be interested in getting MRAPs.

A statement issued on Monday by the U.S. Embassy said the U.S. is "currently reviewing" Pakistan's request for a variety of items under what the U.S. calls its "excess defense articles" — a category that includes the 800 MRAPs in Afghanistan.

Reports that Pakistan might be interested in the MRAPs raised hackles in Kabul, with the authorities saying all the equipment should stay in Afghanistan.