FL airport evacuated - French air-to-air MISSILE found in shipping container

Florida airport is evacuated after live French S-530 air-to-air MISSILE is found in a shipping container

Bomb disposal experts from the US Air Force were called in to remove it

It is still unclear exactly how the missile came to be at Lakeland Linder airport

The airport is home to Draken International which contracts out aircraft to the military for training exercises

About 170 miles from Mar a Lago
11 weeks before presidential election


It's not the first time something like this happens- about a year ago:

Let’s Talk About The Matra R.530F Air-to-Air Missile Seized By The Italian Police During A Raid Against A Neo-Nazi Gang

on July 15, 2019, the antiterrorism section of DIGOS (Italian acronym for General Investigations and Special Operations Division), a specialized unit of Polizia di Stato (the Italian State Police), carried out a raid against a neo-nazi gang and retrieved an arsenal of various weapons, weapon parts, munitions and, notably, a Matra R530F radar-guided air-to-air missile.
The investigation began last year while monitoring Italian foreign fighters involved in combat operations in the Dombass region in Ukraine. While monitoring telephone communications of one of the suspects, the Police discovered the presence of the missile and some attempts to sell it to an unknown client for 470,000 Euro. The Police then proceeded to retrieve the missile in a warehouse near Voghera-Rivanazzano Terme airport, in northern Italy.

Based on the markings, the missile is an R.530 F20 version with serial number 5284, belonging to the production lot 83 and sold to the Government of Qatar on Oct. 10, 1980.

A second 9-11 prevented.

66 pounds of high explosive warhead . . . nice bit to have in the baggage compartment.

Cheers

a reply to: Trueman

Quite possibly. There could be a less nefarious explanation but time and place do bring a very nasty scenario to mind.

I imagine you'd have to be a real clever clogs to arm and operate a missile like this. It's not like launching a firework.

It would appear to me that due to the nature of Draken that this was a serious logistical error. Interesting company though... I'm assuming they own some Mirage French fighter jets.

a reply to: MindBodySpiritComplex

It being a semi-active radar homing, air to air missile, anyone with malicious intent, is going to require some extreme additional military hardware to, aim, and launch the thing at any target in the USA.

a reply to: RAY1990

They own both Mirage F1 and Atlas Cheetah airframes, among other things. I'm guessing someone just made a big logistical error and live missiles have been going in and out of there for ages, whether with approval or not.

originally posted by: MindBodySpiritComplex
a reply to: Trueman

Quite possibly. There could be a less nefarious explanation but time and place do bring a very nasty scenario to mind.

Ah yes. A less nefarious explanation. Like all TSA was on sick leave due to covid perhaps.

I’d be willing to bet this is less than nefarious. Somewhere out there is an aircraft tech saying “Oh #!!!! I FORGOT TO MOVE THAT CRATE AFTER I STRIPPED THE JET!”. It was found in a box of spare aircraft parts and Draken has 150 former military planes. I don’t think it’s far off base to assume someone, or a group of people, stripping a plane tossed it in a crate then someone else tossed a bunch of random parts in it not paying attention, crate gets sealed up and shipped out.

Sure, it could be completely nefarious and that same act was done on purpose to get the missile in someone’s hands, but I’d assume they’d find more than just a single air-to-air missile if that were the case.

Somebody call Saph. If someone has a clue about this thing, is him.

a reply to: RazorV66

Well if they did, they are in for a shock with that particular "Roman candle".

a reply to: andy06shake

But hang on Trueman a few posts up from you said its gonna be another 911..
..

Hahaha

They bought 24 Mirage F1s from Spain, who used to use the Super 530 missile. An air to air missile isn't going to do a lot of damage to anything but another aircraft, and would require a fair bit of modification to be fired from the ground. It would also need a radar system and launcher. This was almost certainly someone at the logistics base screwing up with a missile that was supposed to be shipped somewhere to be destroyed.

a reply to: Zaphod58

Im thinking Ben Adnam got a hold of the H.M.S. Unseen again and is looking for a restock.

originally posted by: Zaphod58
They bought 24 Mirage F1s from Spain, who used to use the Super 530 missile. An air to air missile isn't going to do a lot of damage to anything but another aircraft, and would require a fair bit of modification to be fired from the ground. It would also need a radar system and launcher. This was almost certainly someone at the logistics base screwing up with a missile that was supposed to be shipped somewhere to be destroyed.

Is it SOP to ship intact munitions, with warheads attached, to be destroyed?