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2002-12-09 East/Subsaharan Africa

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Posted by Steve 2002-12-09 01:05 pm|| || Front Page|| [4 views since 2007-05-07] Top

#1 A quick check of mapquest shows the kilifi is in fact north of mombasa by about 50 Kilometers.

Theres no way a shoulder launched missle would have enough thrust to go 50 kilomteres. I believe the maximum range of these guys is about 5 miles.

Heres the FAS backgrounder on the SA-7 GRAIL

Posted by Frank Martin 2002-12-09 13:40:11|| [varifrank.blogspot.com] 2002-12-09 13:40:11|| Front Page Top

#2 The story I saw said 4 miles. Maybe they meant 5.0 km.?

Posted by Chuck 2002-12-09 15:37:41|| [www.simmins.org] 2002-12-09 15:37:41|| Front Page Top

#3 That was my thought, but the mapquest info sort of blew that theory. I think theres some mistranslation going on in this story. My guess was the story was posted from kilifi, and that the missles wee found a short distance from the airport. 5 kilomteres seems like a right number to me.

update: an overseas pilot friend tell me that the IFR air routes for Mombasa dont go anywhere near Kilifi, so my second thought that they were close to a VFR beacon at kilifi as their launch point was also grossly incorrect. he also states "Kilifi is 25 miles outbound, youd be up pretty high anyway, so the sa-7 would again be pretty useless. "

Posted by Frank Martin 2002-12-09 16:21:52|| [varifrank.blogspot.com] 2002-12-09 16:21:52|| Front Page Top

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