US ditched plan to give Afghan forces more armoured vehicles
None
KABUL- As Afghan troops were preparing to take on Taliban militants without NATO combat support in 2014, US officials shelved plans to provide them with hundreds of potentially life-saving armoured vehicles, documents reviewed by Reuters show.
The decision not to supply around 300 extra vehicles, taken largely for budgetary reasons, remains a sore point, as local forces struggle to implement a US-led push to get them off bases and into active battle against a resilient insurgency.
Since 2002, the United States has allocated more than $68 billion to train and equip Afghan security forces, with a view to eventually withdrawing from the country. Yet serious shortfalls in personnel and hardware remain.
