# Questions About The Afghan Airbase Raid **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [August 30, 2013, 4:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/questions-about-the-afghan-airbase-raid/667589 "2013-08-30T16:49:36Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 3\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![ralph124c](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8797f3/32.png) [@ralph124c](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ralph124c)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2013, 4:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/questions-about-the-afghan-airbase-raid/667589/1 "2013-08-30T16:49:36Z")
Link:[6 Harrier jets destroyed, 2 damaged in Taliban assault on Camp Bastion | FDD's Long War Journal](http://www.longwarjournal.org/archives/2012/09/6_harrier_jets_destr.php) 14 Afghan Taliban got into a US/British airbase and destroyed $300 million in aircraft and weapons. According to accounts, they were dressed in US Army uniforms, and met no challenge. Yet they managed to create mayhem. My questions: -why was the base so poorly guarded? -I thought we had sophisticated surveillance gear (cameras, IR scanners, motion detectors) deployed to secure the perimeters-why didn’t this work -was the base commander demoted? ---
**Author:** ![Bear\_Nenno](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bear_nenno/32/3358_2.png) [@Bear\_Nenno](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bear_Nenno)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2013, 2:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/questions-about-the-afghan-airbase-raid/667589/2 "2013-08-31T02:56:34Z")
It’s guarded by POGs. The vast majority of large bases are guarded by POGs, unskilled/untrained Ugandans, local nationals, or a combination of the three. The real question is why these attacks do not happen more often. They are almost always successful to some degree (as long as you consider destroying several aircraft a success). ---
**Author:** ![Bear\_Nenno](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bear_nenno/32/3358_2.png) [@Bear\_Nenno](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bear_Nenno)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2013, 3:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/questions-about-the-afghan-airbase-raid/667589/3 "2013-08-31T03:00:54Z")
[QUOTE=ralph124c] -I thought we had sophisticated surveillance gear (cameras, IR scanners, motion detectors) deployed to secure the perimeters [/QUOTE] I doubt that they sneaked their way in. I am no more than vaguely familiar with the attack in the OP, but I know a lot about a similar attack on BAF. They didn’t use the US uniforms to be tricky or sneak in. That part didn’t really play much of a role. They just came in fast and hard from multiple sides. By the time any camera noticed something, shit was already blowing up.