Report: $420M in US weapons, ‘sensitive items’ go missing in Afghanistan

Nearly $420 million in weapons and other “sensitive items” have gone missing from U.S. Army bases in Afghanistan and are not likely to be recovered due to mismanagement and improper accounting, according to an internal report by the Pentagon’s inspector general obtained by the Washington Free Beacon.

Some 15,600 pieces of equipment—including “weapons, weapons systems, and sensitive items”—went missing in the past year from Army facilities in Bagram and Kandahar, accounting for around $419.5 million in losses, according to the report, which was issued in late October and marked “for official use only.”

The extent of these losses was only discovered following an internal audit by the Pentagon’s inspector general, who recommended that military leaders institute a series of reforms aimed at increasing transparency and strengthening mechanisms meant to detect such losses.

“The Army did not effectively report [fiscal year] 2013 inventory losses at the Bagram and Kandahar, Afghanistan [Redistribution Property Assistance Team] yards,” the report states. “The missing equipment included weapons, weapons systems, and sensitive items.

Even after the 401st Army Field Support Brigade (AFSB) detected these losses, it “did not always correctly calculate and report the total loss to the U.S. government,” according to the report, which shines a light on mismanagement issues that continue to plague U.S. operations in Afghanistan.

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