According to a US general, the US military disabled scores of aircraft and armored vehicles, as well as a high-tech rocket defense system, before departing Kabul airport on Monday.
General Kenneth McKenzie, head of Central Command, said 73 aircraft already at Hamid Karzai International Airport were “demilitarized,” or rendered useless, by US troops before they completed the two-week evacuation of the Taliban-controlled country.
Those planes will never fly again... No one will ever be able to operate them,” he said.
"To begin with, the majority of them are not mission capable. They will, however, never be able to fly again."
He claimed that the Pentagon, which had assembled a force of nearly 6,000 troops to occupy and operate Kabul's airport when the airlift began on August 14, had left behind approximately 70 MRAP armored tactical vehicles — which can cost up to $1 million apiece — that it had disabled before leaving, as well as 27 Humvees.
The vehicles 'will never be used by anyone again,' he said.
The US also left behind the C-RAM (counter rocket, artillery, and mortar) system, which was used to protect the airport from rocket attacks.
On Monday, the system assisted in repelling a five-rocket barrage from the Islamic State.
"We chose to keep those systems operational until the very last minute," McKenzie said, before the last US aircraft left.
"It is a complex and time-consuming procedure to disassemble those systems. As a result, we demilitarize those systems so that they are never used again."
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