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DefenceTalk<\/p>\nDefenceTalk<\/p>\n
The US military disabled scores of aircraft and armored vehicles as well as a high-tech rocket defense system at the Kabul airport before it left Monday, a US general said.<\/p>\n
Central Command head General Kenneth McKenzie said 73 aircraft that were already at Hamid Karzai International Airport were \u201cdemilitarized,\u201d or rendered useless, by US troops before they wrapped up the two-week evacuation of the Taliban-controlled country.<\/p>\n
\u201cThose aircraft will never fly again\u2026 They\u2019ll never be able to be operated by anyone,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cMost of them are non-mission capable to begin with. But certainly they\u2019ll never be able to be flown again.\u201d<\/p>\n
He said the Pentagon, which built up a force of nearly 6,000 troops to occupy and operate Kabul\u2019s airport when the airlift began on August 14, left behind around 70 MRAP armored tactical vehicles \u2014 which can cost up to $1 million apiece \u2014 that it disabled before leaving, and 27 Humvees.<\/p>\n
The vehicles \u201cwill never be used again by anyone,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
The US also left behind the C-RAM system \u2014 counter rocket, artillery, and mortar \u2014 that was used to protect the airport from rocket attacks.<\/p>\n
The system helped fend off a five-rocket barrage from the Islamic State on Monday.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe elected to keep those systems in operation up until the very last minute,\u201d before the last US aircraft left, McKenzie said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a complex procedure and time-intensive procedure to break down those systems. So we demilitarize those systems so that they\u2019ll never be used again.\u201d<\/p>\n