Uzbekistan has successfully transferred seven Black Hawk helicopters to the United States, originally piloted by Afghan soldiers who fled to the Central Asian nation amidst the Taliban’s resurgence in 2021. This transfer comes after a complex backdrop involving demands from Kabul for the return of these helicopters and previous calls from former US President Donald Trump for the Taliban to return American military equipment.
Following the US invasion of Afghanistan in the wake of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, the American government invested substantial resources—amounting to billions of dollars—into the Afghan military with the aim of establishing a stronghold against potential Taliban resurgence. However, after the Taliban’s sweeping return to power in 2021, significant amounts of this military equipment, including aircraft, fell into their possession.
According to diplomats from the US, the helicopters that have been retrieved were flown to Uzbekistan by Afghan pilots escaping the Taliban forces. The US Embassy in Tashkent confirmed the recovery of the helicopters, which had become out-of-service, although Uzbek officials have refrained from providing comments on the matter, highlighting the tightly controlled nature of information within the country.
Reports from the Uzbek edition of Voice of America also noted that Pentagon officials corroborated the timing and context of the helicopters’ recovery, marking a notable development in the geopolitical dynamics of the region.
The Taliban’s defense ministry had previously called for cooperation from Uzbekistan regarding the return of Afghan Air Force planes, raising questions about the status of over 45 Afghan aircraft identified in Uzbekistan through satellite surveillance during the crisis in 2021.
The current whereabouts and fate of these aircraft that were not returned to the US remain unclear, leaving a lingering uncertainty over the military assets that once belonged to Afghanistan amidst ongoing tensions between the Taliban and the international community.
