Masoud Andarabi, Afghanistan’s former acting NDS Chief and Deputy Director for Ops and current Acting Minister of Interior, has shared a short video of an Afghan Ministry of Defense weapons maintenance facility.
The video features a range of both Western and former Soviet bloc small arms being repaired and cleaned. While the facility is basic, made up of little more than a few cleaning stations, some workbenches and some power tools as Andarabi notes the facility represents Afghanistan’s first efforts to repair, service and maintain its small arms.
#MOIReforms: a functioning weapon enhances our fighting ability against terrorism & criminal networks. Last year we repaired 14300 different kind of weapons i.e. AK47 in-house, compared to 0 during the previous years. This technical capability allows us to save lives & $millions. pic.twitter.com/tLs0ir357b
— Masoud Andarabi (@andarabi) June 19, 2020
Let’s take a look at some of the weapons that are being worked on in the footage.
In the first still from the video we see a tripod-mounted DShKM 12.7×108mm heavy machine gun and a table with 10 Hungarian AMD-65 7.62×39mm AK-pattern self-loading rifles, numerous other AMD-65s are seen later in the video at various stages of being cleaned and reassembled. The AMD-65 is commonly issued to the Afghan National Police (currently the Afghan Uniformed Police, AUP).
Fig. 1.1. A workbench full of Hungarian AMD-65 rifles (Source: Masoud Andarabi via Twitter)
The camera pans across five recoilless rifles, which appear to be US 75mm M20s, and a pair of difficult to make out machine guns but it appears that the gun at the end of the bench is a KPV 14.5×114mm heavy machine gun.
Fig. 1.2. Recoilless Rifle anti-tank weapons (Source: Masoud Andarabi via Twitter)At the centre of the workshop are a number of cleaning stations with a large number of Heckler & Koch MP5 9×19mm submachine guns assemblies being cleaned. Receivers, pistol grip assemblies and handguards can all be seen. Additionally, more DShKM-pattern heavy machine guns can be seen in on a bench in the background.
We then get a closer look at the bench with at least 13 DShKM pattern 12.7×108mm heavy machine guns waiting to be worked on.
Next to the various DShKM Soviet/Russian-origin heavy machine guns a technician is then seen working on a lone M2 Browning 12.7×99mm heavy machine gun. The barrel has been removed and it appears that the bolt and buffer assemblies are being removed.
In a break from the large number of heavy machine guns the camera then pans across three Goryunov SGM 7.62×54mmR medium machine gun, these appear to be in rough shape. The Goryunov SGM is currently in use with some Afghan National Army units.
Another bench of the ubiquitous DShKM heavy machine guns is then seen with a number of different camouflage paint schemes present.
While we only get a short look at the workshop we get an idea of Afghanistan’s burgeoning efforts to develop an indigenous maintenance capability. How many other similar workshops there are and how capable their staff are is unclear but according to Andarabi’s original tweet over 14,000 weapons were serviced in 2019. This sort of maintenance capability will become ever more essential to the operations of the Afghan National Police and Afghan armed forces as Western assistance draws down.
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