Against the backdrop of strengthening relations with Russia, the Taliban has announced its intention to create an air defense system for Afghanistan using Russian equipment. Although Moscow has recently shown willingness to supply advanced missiles to the Houthis in Yemen and Hezbollah in Lebanon, it may be less interested in arming the current regime in Kabul – Forbes
In 2023, less than two years after returning to power in Afghanistan following the chaotic withdrawal of US troops, the Taliban allocated the largest portion of the country’s budget to defense, declaring its desire to create its own air defense system.
“Any country needs anti-aircraft missiles,” said Taliban commander and army chief of staff Qadi Fasihuddin Fitrat in April 2023. He noted that Afghanistan is seeking to obtain such systems, but did not specify how this could be achieved.
However, in an interview with Russia’s TASS news agency in August, General Syed Abdul Basir Saberi, head of the logistics department of the Taliban-controlled Ministry of Defense, explicitly stated his intentions: “We need air defense equipment and air control equipment. We have ground equipment and we plan to buy [it] from you when the legal conditions are right.”
Saberi added that Afghanistan is seeking Russian equipment to build an air defense system, emphasizing that Russia is one of the most advanced countries in this field. His comments came amid deepening ties between the Taliban and Moscow, as evidenced by the group’s invitation to the St. Petersburg Forum in May.
This statement also came after Russia demonstrated its readiness to supply the Houthis with anti-ship missiles and to transfer the Pantsir-S1 air defense system to Hezbollah via Syria. The transfer of systems such as the Pantsir to the Taliban or medium-range systems such as the Buk and Tor would be a serious concern for the United States.
Improvements to the air defense system in Afghanistan may make it more difficult for the United States to conduct drone operations, such as the one that killed al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri in Kabul in 2021.
On the same day that Saberi’s interview was published, Iraqi forces shot down a Turkish Aksungur drone over Kirkuk, probably with the help of Pantsir-S1.