In Ghost Wars by Steve Coll p58, chapter 4 of the 2005 edition, it says that Howard Hart (of the CIA) regarded the .303 Lee Enfield as a "far superior weapon to the flashier communist-made AK47 assault rifle". Why was this?
Was it due to the long ranges that the weapon was expected to be used at, the familiarity of the Mujaheddin with said weapons, or something else entirely?
I should state, I know nothing about firearms apart from what I read online.
Thanks.
EDIT: The reason I find it curious is that the Lee Enfield was surely already in the Afghanistan/Pakistan area in great numbers. And unless the Soviets used .303 ammunition, then resupply would be more difficult (having to come from Pakistan). Furthermore, while I can appreciate the value of the higher powered cartridge at range, it would limit the user to ambushing and sniping. If the mujaheddin wanted to assault Soviet positions (as they would have to do if they wanted to ever retake a position) then surely they would be greatly outgunned by even a smaller number of AK-47s.
As that chapter of Ghost Wars explains, Howard Hart was a gun nut and the initial stated purpose of the mission was "harassment". A skilled marksman can perform harassing fire better with a Western-made bolt-action rifle than with an Eastern Bloc automatic.
The other main factor was deniability. This was supposed to be a covert action and as such, any arms a Third World tribesman carried should be plausible. Furthermore, the logistics chain also had to be invisible. Suppliers had to be either duped or stolen from. (One of their early successes was the CIA stealing SA-7 anti-aircraft missles from Poland to ship to the muj.) The idea was, that Soviet intelligence wouldn't notice the CIA snatching up hundreds of thousands of WWI surplus rifles and ammo from mostly neutral countries. Hart probably would have preferred the more modern SKS, but there's no way he could have acquired and moved that many.
Of course, the average muj wasn't a skilled marksman and marginal with a bolt action rifle. AK-47's also became trophy items, because presumably whoever carried one had killed a Russian to get it. Automatic fire (however inaccurate it is) is also just more impressive on an instinctive level. Thus the AK-47's popularity.
The real death knell for the Lee Enfield came when Operation Cyclone became increasingly overt. In 1984 the CIA began buying modern Eastern Bloc arms directly from Chinese manufacturers. Once China opened up, the muj had full access to modern Eastern Bloc arms. What was supposed to be a minor operation eventually consumed half of the Directorate of Operations budget. By 1986, the CIA actually began to think this "harassment" operation was "winnable."
Your best source for this is Charlie Wilson's War by George Crile. It's also a much more fun read than Ghost Wars.