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| Africa North | |
| Iran 'steals surface-to-air missiles from Libya' | |
| 2011-09-23 | |
| Iran's Revolutionary Guards have stolen dozens of sophisticated Russian-made surface-to-air missiles from Libya and smuggled them across the border to neighbouring Sudan, according to Western intelligence reports The weapons were seized by units attached to the Guards' elite Quds Force, which travelled to Libya from their base in southern Sudan.
They say the weapons stolen by Iran include sophisticated Russian-made SA-24 missiles that were sold to Libya in 2004. The missile can shoot down aircraft flying at 11,000 feet, and is regarded as the Russian equivalent of the American "stinger" missiles that were used by the US-backed mujahideen to defeat Soviet forces in Afghanistan in the 1980s. It is similar to the weapon used by al-Qaeda in the failed attempt to shoot down an Israeli passenger jet taking off from Kenya's Mombasa airport in 2002. | |
| Posted by:tipper |
| #8 Yes, in Africa, several airliners have been shot down with MANPADs as old as the SA-7. Just no major 767 shootdowns in the West, or similar events. The Rhodesians lost an airliner during their Brush War to an SA-7. |
| Posted by: Shieldwolf 2011-09-23 17:25 |
| #7 "Now I look Khamenei, what I see is evil personified." What took you so long, Kojack? I've been seeing him that way for over 30 years. |
| Posted by: Barbara 2011-09-23 10:14 |
| #6 More than likely these new missiles will show up around the nuclear sites in Iran. And I agree, zap the base. A B-2 run over it would be agreeable too. |
| Posted by: DarthVader 2011-09-23 10:03 |
| #5 There's a base that's just begging for a drone-zap. What would the Iranians do -- complain? They aren't supposed to be there in the first place. It's a wedding party. |
| Posted by: Nimble Spemble 2011-09-23 09:36 |
| #4 The Iranians have a substantial capability to reverse-engineer these. |
| Posted by: lotp 2011-09-23 09:32 |
| #3 Libyan SA-24 Can't Be Used as MANPADS A top official from Russian KBM Machine-building design bureau confirmed it was his company that supplied the Libyan government forces with the truck mounted short-range anti-aircraft Igla-S (SA-24 Grinch) missiles recently spotted by the international media. He explained that the Libyan Strelets fire Igla-S missiles but they can not be used as man-portable air defense (manpads). “To fire Iglas as a man-portable weapon you need a separate trigger mechanisms that were not supplied to Libya”, he said. If true, then the Iranians "liberated some SA-24s for their armed forces. There won't be any Iranian sponsored terrorists using them against airliners. Though that won't preclude "liberated" SA-14/16/18s from doing so. |
| Posted by: Eohippus Phater7165 2011-09-23 08:57 |
| #2 Given how ineffective Libyan surface-to-air missiles have been in the actual, you know, Libyan civil war, I can't imagine why Quds Force would *want* them, unless it's to sell them on the terror market. They would seem to have been proved militarily negligible against NATO and US military aircraft. Has anyone successfully managed to take down a civilian airliner with a stinger-type missile? |
| Posted by: Mitch H. 2011-09-23 08:37 |
| #1 I met an Iranian yesterday, living in London, who had nothing but contempt for the Iranian leadership, most notably Khamenei. Now I look Khamenei, what I see is evil personified. |
| Posted by: Kojack 2011-09-23 06:28 |