Shocking Number of U.S. Weapons Missing in Afghanistan

On February 12, the General Accounting Office (GAO) released a truly jaw-dropping report detailing the roughly 87,000 weapons (AK-47 assault rifles, mortars, machine guns and RPG-launchers) donated by the U.S. to Afghan forces that are now unaccounted for. The Department of Defense (DoD) has similarly lost track of about 135,000 weapons that we obtained for Afghanistan from other countries. That's somewhere close to 222,000 weapons that our military may have allowed to slip into the possession of Taliban forces.

On the same day the report was released, the House Oversight and Government Reform Subcommittee on National Security and Foreign Affairs heard testimony from the GAO and from the DoD Inspector General's office; the IG's office had just released a parallel report agreeing with the findings of the GAO. The DoD IG's testimony can be found here. From statements by Committee Chairman John Tierney (D-Mass):

The reports highlighted at this hearing as well as this Subcommittee's recent meeting with General Formica in Afghanistan indicate serious impediments: poor security for stored weapons; illiteracy hampering efficient operations; corruption; high desertion rates; and unclear guidance.

Both reports blamed the Pentagon for its failure to set or follow accountability standards which led to U.S. forces ignoring their mandate to ensure the "accountability, control and physical security" of the weapons. In fact, the most basic step of recording serial numbers was routinely skipped.

Possibly the most disturbing aspect of the fiasco is the fact that it is a repeat of what happened in Iraq, according to a July 2007 GAO report. Because of those findings, Chairman Tierney said, "Congress passed a law requiring that 'no defense articles be provided to Iraq until the President certifies that a registration and monitoring system has been established.'" Remarkably, the DoD failed to generalize the new standards of accountability to the situation in Afghanistan, resulting in the latest round of hearings, and the possibility that Congress will have to pass new legislation to prevent the military from losing weapons that will ultimately be used to attack it's own soldiers.

P.S. A Lexis-Nexis search shows zero follow-up articles on these reports after the day of the hearings. If I've missed one somewhere, let me know with an email or a comment!