President Donald Trump announced in September that the United States is seeking to reclaim Bagram Airfield from the Taliban, calling it “one of the biggest air bases in the world” and citing its proximity to China’s nuclear weapons facilities.

“We’re trying to get it back,” Trump said during a joint news conference with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer on September 18, adding that the regime “need things from us.”

The Taliban quickly rejected the demand three days later, stating that “Afghanistan’s independence and territorial integrity are of the utmost importance” and calling on the U.S. to uphold prior agreements.

Over $7 billion in equipment left behind

U.S. forces left more than $7 billion in military equipment with the Afghan national army when American troops withdrew in August 2021, according to the U.S. Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR).

The abandoned equipment included more than 250,000 rifles—enough to arm the entire U.S. Marine Corps—and nearly 18,000 night-vision goggles, enough to outfit the Army’s 82nd Airborne Division, SIGAR reported in November 2022.

The Taliban also acquired planes, helicopters and armored vehicles that had been used by the U.S.-backed Afghan army. Stars and Stripes reported in February 2023 that the Taliban regime had learned to operate some of the helicopters and aircraft left behind.

Satellite images show salvage operations

Satellite imagery analysis reveals “a concerted effort by the Taliban to centralize, assess and salvage its newfound fleet” in the years since taking control, according to William Goodhind, a geospatial analyst at research project Contested Ground, which tracks armed conflict using satellite imagery.

At Kandahar Airfield, vacated by U.S. forces in May 2021, images show hundreds of vehicles grouped together in multiple compounds. Humvees handed over to the Afghan army were “gutted and their chassis piled in open ground,” Goodhind told the Washington Post.

At Kabul airport, satellite images show the Taliban regime moving stored or scrapped aircraft to aprons since 2021—what Goodhind described as probably part of an effort to “consolidate all captured equipment and to cannibalize parts needed for repairs.”

Military aircraft visible at Kabul airport in August included several A-29 Super Tucano light attack aircraft and UH-60 Black Hawk twin-engine utility helicopters, as well as transport aircraft including C-130 Hercules and Cessna 208 planes, and several Mi-17 Hip helicopters, according to analysts at Contested Ground and Janes defense intelligence firm.

Limited operational capability

While the Taliban government lacks skilled pilots and technicians, it is finding ways to repair some aircraft by sourcing spare parts on the black market, a senior Pakistani official told the Washington Post on condition of anonymity.

“A lot of the equipment they inherited doesn’t work,” said Asfandyar Mir, a senior fellow for South Asia at the Stimson Center think tank.

At Bagram, satellite images indicate only minor military activity over the past four years. The tarmac now features images of aircraft painted directly on the pavement, apparently intended as decoys when seen from above. The painted aircraft haven’t moved since the withdrawal, according to Goodhind’s analysis.

Economic plans abandoned

The Taliban initially hoped to use Bagram for both military and civilian purposes, with plans to establish special economic zones. But in a statement to the Washington Post, a spokesman for the Taliban-run Ministry of Industry and Commerce acknowledged publicly for the first time that those plans are now off.

“After technical evaluations, we concluded that converting military facilities into economic centers would require a series of major demolitions and reconstructions—a process that would be both costly and damaging to our military sector,” spokesman Akhundzada Abdul Salam Jawad said.

Trump demands equipment return

In February 2025, Trump called for the return of U.S. military equipment from the Taliban. Speaking at his first cabinet meeting, Trump said “I think we should get a lot of that equipment back.”

At the Conservative Political Action Conference the same month, Trump tasked a U.S. official with developing a strategy to retrieve military assets from the Taliban, expressing frustration over Taliban fighters using U.S. military gear in parades.

Under the Biden administration, U.S. defense officials rejected responsibility for the abandoned equipment. The Pentagon said it had provided weapons and equipment to the Afghan army after “careful end-user considerations including risks of enemy capture” and had no intention of recovering the arms.