Stop Undermining Partners with ‘Gifts’
Matthew Cancian
December 13, 2021
Giving partner forces weapons isn’t always good for them. The Taliban’s bounty of American equipment illustrates that the Afghan army didn’t fall for lack of equipment. However, the provision of material aid to partner forces has largely escaped scrutiny in the Afghanistan post-mortem. It might seem that any material assistance is useful assistance. But free equipment is often counterproductive, and the logistics-heavy weapons America gives its partners can prove worse than scrap metal.
My own experience with the Peshmerga in Iraq reveals three principal ways that gifts such as mine-resistant, ambush protected (MRAP) vehicles and high mobility multipurpose wheeled vehicles (HMMWVs) can create difficulties for U.S. partners. First, there are the maintenance costs. Then there is the continuous need for consumables. And finally, there is the human and organizational capital needed to provide each of these. The U.S. military has an ample budget for maintenance and consumables in combat zones. Furthermore, the United States has well-trained maintenance and logistics personnel — not to mention legions of contractors — who can move the parts and consumables to where they are needed and make sure that the system runs (relatively) smoothly. However, partners often lack this capital and specialized infrastructure. The United States can pay for the partner’s spare parts and depot-level maintenance, but it will do little good if they lack the human capital and organization to maintain and “feed” weapon systems that are gifted to them.
https://warontherocks.com/2021/12/stop-undermining-partners-with-gifts/
