Missile Story Less Scarey than Radio News Implies

[Griff]

I guess there is less story here than I thought. The Russians supplied the faulty missile and we supplied the buyers. Maybe this one dealer can lead us to other dealers...

The arrest took place at a hotel near Newark Liberty International Airport after the dealer agreed to sell a highly sophisticated SA-18 missile to undercover agents. Russian undercover agents sent the missile to the United States aboard a ship that docked at an East Coast port. During the trip, the missile was under the control of Russian and American officials, who remained under cover.

There is however this little problem...

Intelligence agencies say Al Qaeda already has dozens of missiles, many of them American-made Stingers left over from the war in Afghanistan in the 1980's when the United States supplied them to Afghan guerrillas seeking to oust Soviet troops from their country. Hundreds of other surface-to-air missiles are reported to be circulating on the black market.

We've been told that these degrade over time but smart people with with enough time/hate/expertise.

[xoxoxoBruce]

Cut off his balls and stuff them down his throat so he can't scream when he's tortured to death.
At least the terrorists have a cause, no matter how bizarre. This scum was after money no matter who died. The lowest of the low.

[Undertoad]

Less scary II: a military strategist examines the threat. It turns out that a big jet would probably not be taken down by a shot. Who knew?

[Griff]

[speculation]Hmmm... I guess that could also explain why there doesn't seem to be a great fear of low tech weapons of similar capabilities which, I assume, could be built more easily than missiles can be bought.[/speculation]

[russotto]

There's nothing at all to it. A number of LEO types sold missiles to themselves through a middleman and then arrested the middleman. If there was any justice it would be considered entrapment.

[tw]

Originally posted by Undertoad
It turns out that a big jet would probably not be taken down by a shot. Who knew?

All depend on who built the jet. For example, I believe it was a MacDonald Douglas jet (which means problems) that lost one engine in Chicago. Normally no problem. But McD company, run by management that could not fly planes and did not learn about building planes, instead concentrated all hydralic lines in the same location above the engine. Jet crashed when all threee hydralic control systems were lost.

I believe the picture was once posted in the Cellar as the jet turned over, then nose dived.

Point is that a shoulder fired missile might take out an engine. No problem if the plane was properly designed. However some plane manufacturers were run by MBA educated management.

Another crappy designed plane (that took 20 years and Bill Clinton to finally become functional) was the B-1. What took one out? A bird. A bird crashed into the body - where all hydralic lines were again bunched together - and crashed the plane. Bird did not even have to target an engine.

For some planes so poorly designed, it only takes a bird. Who therefore needs missiles?

Do you raise carrier pigeons? Then you too could be classified a terrorist - according to this administration armed with the Patriot Act.

[xoxoxoBruce]

Wait a damn minute.
Take a Boeing 747 weighing 800,000 pounds, carrying 53,000 gallons of fuel, taking off, and blow one of these babies into the cockpit, or fuel tank, or wing root, or vertical stabilizer and I guarantee your very own big bang.
Same plane cruising at 30,000 feet you'd be damn lucky to bring it down but to make a blanket statement that it won't bring down a big plane just isn't true.
There is a million different scenarios and many of them are grim.