How Soviet-Afghan war paved the way for the theft of Stringer missile
Friends,
In the affair of black gold and hot water, the Soviet Union attacked Afghanistan on 24 December 1989.
To put it under control for their advantage, CIA and ISI intervened and consequently ISI started training Mujahids (Arabic mujāhidūn, “those who engage in jihad”) and also sent some of their army contingent with them. Backed by the United States, the mujaheddin rebellion grew, spreading its wings far and wide in the country. The Soviets initially left the suppression of the rebellion to the Afghan army, but the latter was beset by mass desertions and remained largely ineffective throughout the war.
The task of CIA in this was to provide arms and ammunition for the Mujaheddin, which was further passed on to the Mujaheddin by the ISI.
In a way, ISI acted as a mediator throughout the operation. CIA named this arm and finance program as Operation Cyclone.
In this operation, CIA initially gave only those weapons to the Mujaheddin which were either captured from the Soviet Union or bought from other countries but gave only a few of their old weapons.
Initially, to counter the low flying helicopter, CIA provided man pads to the Mujahides i.e., Man-Portable Air Defence System (MANPADS) or in common language, solder missiles which included the China-made HN 5, the UK-made Blowpipe and the US-made FIM-43 Redeye .
All these missiles were in small quantities, but after the arrival of all these missiles, the Soviet Union had to swim in troubled waters. To solve this, the Soviet Union fielded the most dangerous helicopter at that time, the MI-24, its upgraded version Mi-35 is still included in the stunning helicopter.
After the arrival of this helicopter, it became difficult for the Blowpipe, HN-5 and FIM-43 Redeye to shoot down this helicopter as the helicopter was equipped with the latest technology of that time. And with the arrival of this helicopter, the Soviets seemed to be getting heavy and for 4 years, the Soviet Union was on the verge of winning this war on the basis of this helicopter.
On the other hand ISI, CIA and Mujahideen got upset and called a meeting and the solution of this meeting was that the Mujahides should be given such latest technology weapons which could easily counter MI-24 fighter helicopter and that weapon was America's FIM-92 Stinger missile which America had included in its service only in 1981, but America has a policy that it does not easily give away its weapons made for its own to anyone and especially not to the Muslim country, but it still remains a mystery as to how Pakistani General Zia-ul-Haq and ISI convinced America for this stringer missile.
America started delivering FIM-92 in 1986, which resulted in the destruction of MI-24. This missile proved to be a game changer of the Soviet-Afghan war.
The Stringer missile shot down its first victim in this war, the MI-24 on 25 September 1986 near Jalalabad. In this entire war, the Soviet Union used more than 600 helicopters, in which there were more than 50 MI-24 helicopters among which 333 helicopters were destroyed, besides 117 fighter helicopters were also targeted. According to Wikipedia, 800 stringer missiles were used for this war whereas through other reliable source, the total number of stringer missiles came out as somewhere between 1500 to 2000.
In the war, around 80% of casualties were reported through America's Stringer missile. It wouldn’t be an understatement if we call this missile the hero of the war. After the Soviet Union left Afghanistan, in 1990, the US started a program to buy back missiles from the Afghan Mujahideen. At first, Pakistan did not show any keen interest in it, but after reading the pressure of America, the program started and America got close to 350. Only the Stringer missile could be recovered, the rest of the missiles were allegedly lost as per their statement.
Shortly after this, the war between Pakistan and India begun in 1999 and the world witnessed how Pakistan explicitly put to use the US-made Stringer missiles which Pakistan had stolen during the Afghan war.
After this, many-a-times US held Pakistan accountable in the UN on the matter, but nothing substantial came out and Pakistan has not accepted the theft till date.
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