$500 Million Worth of Aircrafts Given To Afghanistan by US — They're Turned Into Scrap Metal and Sold for $32,000: While US Cities Declare Bankruptcy

The C-27J aircraft. (Photo from Wikimedia Commons)

By Andrea Shalal
A U.S. government watchdog agency is asking the Air Force to explain why it decided to destroy 16 aircraft initially bought for the Afgan air force and turn them into $32,000 of scrap metal instead of finding other ways to salvage nearly $500 million in U.S. funds spent on the program.

John Sopko, special inspector general for Afghanistan reconstruction, asked Air Force Secretary Deborah James to document all decisions made about the destruction of the 16 C-27J aircraft that were stored at Kabul International Airport for years, and what the service planned to do with four additional planes now in Germany.

"I am concerned that the officials responsible for planning and executing the scrapping of the planes may not have considered other possible alternatives in order to salvage taxpayer dollars." Sopko said in a letter to James that was dated Oct. 3 and released Thursday by his office.

Sopko also asked if any other parts of the planes had been sold before they were destroyed by the Defense Logistics Agency.

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