The United States risks providing Afghanistan with state-of-the-art Black Hawk helicopters that the country's embattled air force does not have the pilots to fly nor the engineers to maintain, a U.S. watchdog said on Tuesday.
The warning, by the U.S. Special Inspector for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR), comes amid widespread fears that the Afghan military will struggle to cope with a looming pullout of allied foreign troops after more than 17 years of conflict.
Talks between U.S. envoys and Taliban negotiators due to resume in Qatar on Feb. 25 are likely to center on the withdrawal of thousands of US-led NATO forces and a ceasefire to end America’s longest war.