History 30/12/19 What country tested its weapons on the Soviet soldiers in the Afghan war
What country tested its weapons on the Soviet soldiers in the Afghan war
the Soviet Union, getting involved in 1979 in the Afghan war, expected a relatively peaceful way to resolve internal political conflict. In Moscow and did not think that the Limited contingent of Soviet troops is, in fact, to fight against a coalition of anti-Soviet minded powers headed by the United States of America.
US
First to the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan responded in the United States, namely the Central intelligence Agency, which launched the operation, codenamed “Cyclone” with the Mujahideen finances and arms. The declassified CIA Memorandum of 11 June 1980, prepared for the U.S. Department of state, it was reported that up to September this year, the “Afghan freedom fighters” will be transferred to the weapons, mostly of Soviet design, for a total of about $ 30 million.
the paper noted that in the scheme of deliveries of weapons were involved in the five States. The countries included Egypt, then the US air force aircraft weapons were delivered to Saudi Arabia, after which the sides of the local force were sent to Pakistan and then with the help of organizations of Afghan refugees came to Afghanistan.
the Head of Afghanistan’s inter-services intelligence of Pakistan ISI Mohammad Yusuf in his book “a bear” so described this process: “When a Mujahid threw mine in the tube of his mortar it was the end of the route, which mine at least 15 times overloaded, breaking thousands of miles via truck, ship, train then truck and pack animal.”
the Described way to the Afghan rebels came the Soviet AK-47 assault rifles and MANPADS “Strela-2”, which in large quantities were available on armed Arab countries, including Egypt. In addition, had been shipped to Afghanistan and other weapons of Soviet manufacture: rocket launchers, hand grenades, heavy machine guns, anti-tank and anti-personnel mines, sniper rifles.
In the early years of the conflict, the United States feared to supply equipment of its own production that the Soviet Union had grounds to accuse the West of supporting the separatists. However, in 1983, under pressure from the Soviet Union over the ocean were forced to admit the fact of military assistance to the Afghan opposition, and then in the conflict zone flooded and “state” weapons, including automatic rifles M-16А1 MANPADS “stinger”. In addition, the United States gave the green light to supply weapons production Germany, England, Sweden, Switzerland, Israel, and Pakistan.
the U.S. military aid to anti-government forces of Afghanistan has grown exponentially: in 1984 it amounted to $ 125 million in 1985 to 250 million in 1986, 470 million, and in 1987-m – already $ 630 million. The total amount of American financial assistance to the Afghan opposition during the 10 years of war, according to some estimates, over $ 2 billion.
China
China’s Participation in the Afghan war, neither the Soviet, nor even in the post-Soviet era was not accepted to advertise. Meanwhile, the volumes of Chinese military assistance to the Mujahideen was comparable to the us. By the end of 1970-ies the relations between the USSR and the PRC was in a deep crisis, which has exacerbated China’s war with Vietnam. Beijing’s influence in the socialist world was clearly more modest than the Soviet Union, it became one of the reasons to postpone the competition for leadership in the field of Afghanistan. There is another explanation of the reaction of the Chinese leadership on the deployment of the 40th army in Afghanistan – to protect its own borders against a powerful Soviet grouping, focusing directly on the borders of China.
China, like the US, to deflect any suspicion as a transit point for pretirement Afghan Mujahideen weapons used Pakistan. There’s also a full swing training militants, which was attended by hundreds of Chinese instructors. It is significant that the number of military advisers, who oversaw rebel, China had unconditional leadership. In Pakistan, they were 844. In second place with 619 the French advisors, and the Americans – 299 people.
the Chinese supplied the Mujahideen own a replica AK-47 (Type 56) during the entire war “Kalash” was the main armament of fighters. From China to Afghanistan were other clones of Soviet weapons: light machine gun Degtyarev hand-held antitank grenade launchers RPG-2 and RPG-7, 82-mm recoilless guns B-10, used to destroy enemy personnel and light fortifications, field-type, large-caliber Vladimirov machine guns, used for firing at aircraft and helicopters.
the Spooks were also weapons made in China, for example, the rocket system of volley fire Type 63. The volume shipped from China to Afghanistan weapons every year only increased: if in 1983, Beijing has supplied separatists 40 thousand tons of weapons and ammunition, in 1985 this figure reached 70 thousand tons. Largely thanks to Chinese supply of anti-government forces of Afghanistan have never experienced the lack of any weapons or ammunition.
Other countries
In assistance to the Afghan opposition took part, and a loyal ally in NATO — the United Kingdom. During the Afghan war, both countries conducted a joint operation code-named “Faraday”, as direct perpetrators were the British special forces the SAS and the intelligence Department of the Ministry of defense. The main aim of the operation was the organisation of arms supplies to the rebels, and the creation of Pakistan and Scotland training camps, where training to the militants: in the future they had intended to throw in the districts of Kandahar, Bagram and Kabul to perform diversioned tasks.
In early 1983, the Soviet military detained in Afghanistan saboteurs operating in the framework of operation “Faraday”. It was found that one of the channels of supply of weapons to militants is created in the UK firm “Interarms company of Manchester”, which was responsible for sending weapons and ammunition from Manchester to the port city in southern Pakistan Karachi, and from there to the border of Peshawar.
the number supplied to Afghanistan weapons were images and English production – Blowpipe MANPADS designed to engage low-flying helicopters and airplanes, and streamlined semi-automatic rifle Lee Enfield. However, if the “Blowpipe” because of the management complexity and the large weight of the popularity of the insurgents is not known, the “Enfield” liked” – in one of the fights was recorded successful hit from this rifle at a Soviet military transport helicopter Mi-8, which led to his downfall.
No less than the US involvement in helping the rebels took and Saudi Arabia. The average annual volume of funds allocated for the purchase of weapons, mostly of Chinese production, reached $300 million in addition to the AK-47 and “Strela-2” the Saudis also purchased machine rocket artillery BM-13, known as “Katyusha”. Along with Saudi Arabia in sponsoring the Afghan opposition were attended private funds in Arab States, annually allocating for these purposes of not less than $400 million.
Since 1985, the CIA bought large quantities of Soviet weapons to Egypt is the remnants of what was transferred by Moscow to Cairo during the Arab-Israeli conflict. The Soviet military often got these weapons – it is already pretty paravelo and unsuitable for combat use. Subsequently, the CIA began to monitor the quality of arms supplied from Egypt, but the Mujahideen the credibility of Soviet weapons was largely undermined.
Contributed in opposition to a Limited contingent of Soviet troops in Afghanistan and Japan. Following pthe Riemer in the US and China, the Japanese sent financial aid to Pakistan, which was a stronghold of arms supplies to the Afghan opposition. The amount of the assistance are impressive: for the period from December 1979 to August 1983, Japan has contributed to the fight against the Soviet Union in excess of $41 billion.
Taras Repin
Source:
© Russian Seven
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