Afghanistan needs more advanced weapons, like fighter jets,to defend against foreign threats, while the current firepower is enough todeal with insurgents, the country's defense minister said Tuesday.
The United States, as part of an effort to bolster, trainand equip the Afghan army, has provided billions of dollars in equipment buthas balked at supplying sophisticated technology like fighter planes, arguingthat Afghanistan doesn't need such armaments and does not yet have the capacityto maintain them.
Afghan Defense Minister Abdul Rahim Wardak renewed the pitchfor the fighters on Tuesday, casting the procurement of heavier weapons as away of ensuring a regional balance of power.
"What we are asking to acquire is just the ability todefend ourselves, and also to be relevant in the future so that our friends andallies can count on us to participate in peacekeeping and other operations ofmutual interest," Wardak told reporters.
The defense minister did not name any potential regionalthreats. But Pakistan and Iran — both of which have far better equippedarsenals — are widely seen as two neighbors with the potential to influence thecountry's shaky reconstruction effort and push to crush the stubborn Talibaninsurgency.
The Afghan army chief of staff, Gen. Sher Mohammad Karimi,said the army's current level is enough to "bring security and stabilityto this country," in tandem with the police force and the internationalforces.
Karimi said that building a strong military was crucial asway of ensuring the balance of power in the region and as "a deterrencefor this country against our neighbors."
"But by no means (do) we have a policy of offensiveoperations," he said. "Our strategy is defensive."
Training the Afghan security forces is a top priority forthe U.S.-led international coalition that has been battling the Taliban andaffiliated insurgents for the past decade. NATO wants to withdraw its combatforces by the end of 2014 and needs its Afghan counterparts to be ready toassume full security responsibilities by then.
Wardak said about $10 billion has already been allocated bythe U.S. to equip and train the country's security forces, including the armyand the police. He said another package totaling about $10 billion is beingdiscussed, but must still be approved by U.S. lawmakers.
He said the cost of sustaining the country's security forcesin the future largely hinges on the level of violence there.
"If we are able to bring the level of violence down,the sustainment costs will accordingly go down," he said, noting thatgiven the current security situation, that cost could be roughly $5 billion peryear.