US Approves $60 Million Weapons Sale To Afghanistan

The US Defense Security Cooperation Agency (DSCA) has approved $60 million worth weapons sale to Afghanistan.

“The State Department has made a determination approving a possible Foreign Military Sale to Afghanistan for individual and crew served weapons, equipment, training, and support. The estimated cost is $60 million. The Defense Security Cooperation Agency delivered the required certification notifying Congress of this possible sale on August 17, 2016,”DSCA said Wednesday.

Afghanistan has requested Major Defense Equipment (MDE), consisting of 4891 M16A4 5.56mm Rifles, 485 M240B 7.62mm Machine Guns, and 800 M2 .50 caliber Machine Guns.

The Non-Major Defense Equipment includes M249 Light Automatic Machine Guns; M110 7.62mm Sniper Rifles; MK-19 40mm Grenade Launchers; MK-93 40mm Machine Gun Mounts; M3 Tripod Machine Gun Mounts; Spare Barrels; spare and repair parts; lot validation; publications and technical documentation; personnel training and training equipment; Quality Assurance Team; U.S. Government and contractor technical and logistics support services; and other related elements of logistics and program support.

DSCA added that Afghanistan has an urgent requirement to increase its stocks of crew-served weapons for ongoing counter-insurgency operations and enduring threats to its national sovereignty.