Radios taken by Taliban

[prcguy]

When military radios are mentioned, Harris and Thales come to mind and the APX or any Motorola commercial version is not considered a tactical military radio. There could be some Motorola trunked stuff used on bases where someone can remove radios from the system as needed. That's much different than any tactical radio that might get captured and reused.

There was a video elsewhere don't recall link showing them using apx8000s in the brown tan housings. A minor glimpse showed what to be in background a few gtr8000s at the airport running. Some others showed soldiers only kicking the heads on the 100watt radios in the mraps and other vehicles leaving the bricks intact.

 

[W0VNE]

I've been playing with a Thales/Racal 25 aka the PRC6894. What a difference between it and say a Motorola XTS or EF Johnson 5100. And I have nothing against the EF Johnson stuff. Really don't know the Motorola but nothing against them either is just that this Thales... Cool! Not only do I think it could survive being operated in a fish tank but I think you could stand on it while talking and it wouldn't harm it in the least. Pound tent stakes in with it? Hummm maybe! I've wanted to pound some tent stakes in with some of the radios I've repaired. One in particular seemed to have a problem soldering a ribbon cable (Like solder is too expensive???) anyway if one comes across my bench I just assume its screwed up and one of the connections is probably already iffy so I brush on some flux and solder all the connections.

 

[hsmcco]

Name some radios that get nuked. The worst thing that happens to a Falcon II or III series is if it gets zeroed or the HUB goes dead is the radio will loose its crypto keys and at least one model will loose a little frequency range and make an annoying beeping sound. They are otherwise useable.

So if a radio that has the 700/800 mhz option is zeroized it loses that option too?

 

[blantonl]

I'm willing to bet that the vast majority of what was left behind was a crap ton of Motorola XTS-2500's or the PRC equivalent.

 

[hsmcco]

The Congressional Research Service did a pretty decent job on going over what was left behind.
The Report
If you go to page 69 they go over what even qualified to be handed off to foreign governments. Radios aren't specifically mentioned but the same concept can be applied. Most of the equipment was end of life and demilitarized. Considering how much of a process it is to even get CCI items as an active duty US Service Member, I seriously doubt any foreign governments are getting it either.

Even if there are any CCI prc 152s etc. I'm sure that the taliban would much rather hand them over to a more technologically savvy country in exchange for some quick cash. China definitely prioritized procurement of the higher end stuff so they can attempt to reverse engineer it.

 

[prcguy]

I know someone who has a Harris handheld with lots of options and when its internal hold up battery (HUB) died he lost some options and I think 800MHz.

So if a radio that has the 700/800 mhz option is zeroized it loses that option too?

 

[dmchalmers]

I'm sure if you could get ahold of Hunter Biden he could arrange a deal to but some of the left behind radio's

 

[prcguy]

I ran across this the other day, not sure if its accurate but there should be a way to check. It doesn't go in to radio detail but the other items are very disturbing.

Aircraft:

208 planes and helicopters:

110 helicopters
60 transport/cargo planes
20 light attack planes
18 intelligence/surveillance planes

Vehicles:
We left a total of 75,898 vehicles:
42,604 tactical vehicles
22,174 humvees
8,998 medium tactical vehicles
1,005 recovery vehicles
928 mine-resistant vehicles
189 armored tanks

Weapons:
599,690
358,530 rifles
126,295 pistols
64,363 machine guns
25,327 grenade launchers
12,692 shotguns
9,877 RPGs
2,606 howitzers


And you can throw a couple thousand night-vision goggles, surveillance drones, and communication devices on that list as well.

Price tag: In total, it adds up to nearly $84 billion dollars in tax-payer-funded U.S. military equipment.

 

[PACNWDude]

I can't speak to Afghanistan as I left long before that was shut down, but in Iraq, what was left behind was old Motorola (Spectra/Maxtrac/Desktrac etc being the oldest) AN/PRC-153 (Marine XTS2500) XTS1500/2500/3000/5000 and XTL5000 mobiles. There were lots of Type 1 encrypted Icom IC-F43GS handhelds (pre-MBITR [Thales AN/PRC-148/Harris AN/PRC-152 series]), old PSC-5 UHF satcom, even some LST-5 gear....nothing that would be useful for long, and legacy gear. I saw piles of new in the plastic wrap Motorola and Harris radio equipment that was at a base dump being burned.....wish I had a way to bring all of that home cheaply.....lol. Good thing with comms, is that it is easy to disable.....couple of button presses with Motorola, remove Keypad display Unit (KDU) Harris, remove Hold Up Battery (HUB) etc. Software defined radio is easy to lock out of a network...and with our military using lots of proprietary waveforms, those radios can be kept off current system easily enough. I doubt they will get used unless they can get batteries and parts, so the Motorola and Icom commercial gear gets a nod here. And I have seen lots of Marine XTS2500's on auction sites, re-cased and for sale.

 

[SuitSat]

Type 1 encrypted Icom IC-F43GS handhelds

Just for accuracy sake, it was not Type 1 ("Suite A") crypto, but Transcrypt "DES" analog DSP scrambling boards (IC-20 DES module).
IIRC These radios were part of a contract called 'The Military Bundle", and modified for 380-430 MHz...

 

[ElroyJetson]

A friend of mine was deployed in Iraq as things were winding down a few years ago and contractors were dumping stuff in huge quantities.
He took home two UHF XTS5000s (no "special" features were in them) because they were literally being tossed in the trash. Being contractor radios, they weren't on any US government owned property list so he was allowed to take them...or so he said. I wasn't there, I don't know the details. They were not CCI radios. That is certain.

That level of waste really annoys me when I think of it. But on the other hand, one great thing about the US military and its contractors is that we'll likely never lose a battle due to being inadequately equipped with anything important. We seem to have stuff to spare...and burn.

 

[iMONITOR]

So recently I was reading a chart depicting all the various U.S. military assets taken by the Taliban.

I don't think the Taliban took anything, everything was given to them...unfortunately!

 

[Giddyuptd]

It really is sad. You see it a lot waste in local governments such as I seen one blow funds on single knob APX1000s and 4000s to year later tossed them all in a bin some auctioned, some just left in pallet in a locked yard wrotting in weather cause they got "new" radios the APX900 two knob. It's moronics at its finest.

A friend of mine was deployed in Iraq as things were winding down a few years ago and contractors were dumping stuff in huge quantities.
He took home two UHF XTS5000s (no "special" features were in them) because they were literally being tossed in the trash. Being contractor radios, they weren't on any US government owned property list so he was allowed to take them...or so he said. I wasn't there, I don't know the details. They were not CCI radios. That is certain.

That level of waste really annoys me when I think of it. But on the other hand, one great thing about the US military and its contractors is that we'll likely never lose a battle due to being inadequately equipped with anything important. We seem to have stuff to spare...and burn.

 

[ElroyJetson]

Speaking of waste....a few years back the local Air Force Base upgraded its trunked system (UHF Smartnet, low band 403-430 range) to a P25 low band UHF system, shifting down from the 403-430 MHz range to the 380-400 Mhz range.

The old radios: XTS5000s, XTL mobiles, Quantar repeaters, with Smartnet trunking and encryption used on demand. (DES)

The new radios: XTS5000s, XTL mobiles, Quantar repeaters, with P25 Phase 1 trunking and AES on demand.

Old radio bandsplit: 380-470 MHz. Old system operating in the 403-430 MHz range.
New radio bandsplit: 380-470 MHz. New system to operate in the 380-400 MHz range.

Yes...they forklift upgraded a system that was entirely Flashport upgradable to the new requirements.

Your tax dollars at work!

 

[ElroyJetson]

FYI, there's a Harris RF-310M-HH on the fleabay right now. Just 7800 bucks and it can be yours!

No, it's not mine. I don't know the seller. If that amount of money was play money for me, I might have already bought it. But that kind of money is more serious for me. I can't afford to play with toys that cost THAT much.

 

[15plus1]

They weren’t taken. They were left behind. Spoils of war.

 

[TDR-94]

FYI, there's a Harris RF-310M-HH on the fleabay right now. Just 7800 bucks and it can be yours!

No, it's not mine. I don't know the seller. If that amount of money was play money for me, I might have already bought it. But that kind of money is more serious for me. I can't afford to play with toys that cost THAT much.

That radio probably never had the HUB mantained and wouldn't have the P25, AES/DES or HB options to even justify that price in that condition.

 

[prcguy]

A number of them have been purchased by mil radio collectors in the $3.5 to $4k range in very nice condition. $7,800 is just an out of touch seller and anyone paying hat much gets what they deserve.

FYI, there's a Harris RF-310M-HH on the fleabay right now. Just 7800 bucks and it can be yours!

No, it's not mine. I don't know the seller. If that amount of money was play money for me, I might have already bought it. But that kind of money is more serious for me. I can't afford to play with toys that cost THAT much.

 

[TDR-94]

Plus, you would more than likely be helping to fund "terrorism" with that "little" purchase.

 

[AdVictoriam]

7850 HH Kit
(1) Handheld
(4) Batteries
(1) Charger
(1) Antenna