Libyan missiles looted

Originally posted by Oaktree
reply to post by SirMike

 

How do they know they are missing?
I can't imagine that all those rebels (or even state military) were following procedure amongst the chaos.
Maybe they were just used?

As soon as coalition nations started giving weapons to the rebels, the weapons were being sent off to regional factions. By regional, I mean around Africa and the middle east. Al Qaeda was urging on the Libyan revolution from the early days and their veterans from Afghanistan and Iraq were among those on the front lines in Libya.

Just google something like: "Libyan missiles to Hamas" and you will be overwhelmed with info.

reply to post by SirMike


I saw this report on CNN today also. Not as detailed as your link thank you very much. The close ups of the crates in question reveal some interesting data. The markings are in English, which helps me, but makes me wonder ... If the shipments are from Russia to Libya why are they in English? Its like they were mailed there " from / to " by Who exactly... The Brits? They control the oil infrastructure in Tripoli, right? Or the UN... naaaah, must of been Fed Ex or something. I like the "For Research" label on the Libya destination as well. Anyway...

The most important bit is the two date codes and "Power Source Included" label on the crates and in the article below the video in the link. 08/04 and 04/06 (2006) is 5 years ago. I don't know about the Russian variants, but the US Stingers have a rather short shelf life (a couple of years?) due to the batteries which are highly specialized for the sophisticated high powered radar and tracking of returns in the hand held portion of these gizmos. I assume that the russians have the same problem and that these units are useless now due to deterioration of the power sources. Part of this is by design so that the weapons become useless unless a fresh battery is installed. Maybe they can order fresh batteries from Russia (wink)

Is this why they have not shot down any aircraft that we know of recently? I would expect these to have been used against Nato aircraft all thru the conflict but have heard little about them up until now. Maybe the good ones have been used up and these are left behind as they no longer function.

The Libyan people accepteed toons of weapons from the storage depots earlyier n in the conflict.
Perhaps some of those missiles aare stashed away for a rainy day....
I imagine battetries could be found somewhere on the arms market for same....
I am wondering if there was any biological or chemical stuff that the terrs could have gotten their hands on?
Did ghaddaffi have some?

Gaddafi had them hid for a retaliatory strike on the UN and all other transgressors. his loyals were given orders to hang low, and even in the event he is killed or captured, use them wisely

Originally posted by anumohi
Gaddafi had them hid for a retaliatory strike on the UN and all other transgressors. his loyals were given orders to hang low, and even in the event he is killed or captured, use them wisely

The Colonel warned he would take the war to Europe. It would be interesting to see if the promise is kept and some of these are used to take out European passenger planes, the closest he can manage in taking the war to Europe.

Originally posted by thoughtsfull
This is where I don't understand what happened as if he did have all this kit why on earth did he not use it..

But then I guess we will never really know the truth and I hope these have not been spirited anywhere.

He did attempt to use it. Here are Libyan forces manning SA-24 Grinch at the start of the conflict.

www.armyrecognition.com... ssile_system_Libya_Libyan_army_001.jpg

MANPADS can be defeated by simply operating above their effective ceiling. Once the large SAMs and radars have been destroyed or suppressed NATO aircraft had all the time in the world to loiter at 20,000 feet plus and utilise their weapons systems. MANPADS can also be defeated by countermeasures for example flares as carried by NATO attack helicopters.

TJ

Originally posted by intrptr
reply to post by SirMike

 

I saw this report on CNN today also. Not as detailed as your link thank you very much. The close ups of the crates in question reveal some interesting data. The markings are in English, which helps me, but makes me wonder ... If the shipments are from Russia to Libya why are they in English?

The markings are part of the UN campaign for transparency in conventional arms exports. Russia is a signatory along with the Russian Federation States. Obviously it isn't illegal to sell them, but they have to be marked in accordance with the register. For clarity English is used to avoid mistakes.

Even before the register the Soviets exported many of their weapons systems with English stencils. For example Iraq. English was used for transparency to avoid confusion. MANPADS are one of the classification of missiles highlighted inthe UN register. Russia has to declare the transfer hence the extensive export markings on the boxes.

www.un.org...

Even Iran marks its exported weapons with English stencils.

www.diomil.ir...

www.diomil.ir...

www.diomil.ir...

Aviation Week back in March has a quote from the Russian suppliers KBM.

www.aviationweek.com...

The article is titled

'Libyan SA-24 Can't Be Used as MANPADS'

'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.'

Libya operated the SA-24s as a system whereas Venezuela were openly supplied with the trigger systems and operated them as MANPADS.



SA-24 as MANPAD in Venezuela

www.youtube.com...

On the subject of Russian equipment with English markings. The MiG-25 Foxbats recovered in Iraq were covered in English maintenance stencils. Simply a use of English as common language between nations to avoid errors in maintenance issues.

TJ

reply to post by intrptr


Here is another example of Russian weapons boxes heavily stencilled in English as part of the Arms Register.

Russia as signatory to the UN Conventionals Arms Register has exported for years with full transparency.

These Kornet anti-tank missiles were supplied to Syria. Click on the image to increase resolution.



Note on the stencil on the right hand side of the box? 'UN 0295'

Russian arms manufacturer KBP in Tula have to export under full transparency and guidelines for dangerous goods under UN standards.

kbptula.ru...

'UN 0295 Rockets, with bursting charge

'ROCKETS with bursting charge: UN Nos. 0180, 0295'

From

www2.unitar.org...

www.labelident.com...

TJ

Found an updated story on this... if anyone is still interested

www.msnbc.msn.com...

Originally posted by Maxmars
Found an updated story on this... if anyone is still interested

www.msnbc.msn.com...

One thing is for sure after reading this.

I won't be flying on a commercial airliner in the near future, if ever again.

I like my RV, so to be honest I probably wouldn't have anyway, but this kind of reinforces it,