Posted on 11/27/2012 8:52:22 PM PST by cunning_fish
Throughout this year, as fighting intensified in Syria and antigovernment fighters grew in numbers and in strength, it had seemed inevitable that they would acquire heat-seeking shoulder-fired missiles and turn them against the Syrian military aircraft.
This blog had documented the part-by-part appearance in rebel hands of one old heat-seeking system, known as the SA-7. Since midsummer there have been occasional sightings of full systems but none, as far as we know, showing the system in actual use.
Two videos recently posted on YouTube suggest that what had been expected is now occurring.
The first video, embedded below and posted today, shows what would appear to be a two-man hunter-killer team with an SA-7, waiting for an aircraft from hiding behind a building. Matthew Schroeder, an analyst who covers missile proliferation and the arms trade at the Federation of American Scientists in Washington, noted “the glint of the missile’s seeker head, so the missile is in the tube.” This, along with the visible battery and grip stock, indicates that the system is complete.The man with the SA-7 does not loiter; he is soon picked up by another man on a light motorcycle.
(Excerpt) Read more at atwar.blogs.nytimes.com ...
Well, we’re running em in an effort to destabilize Assad.
What’s the big deal? /S
“.....This weapon is a widely distributed portable antiaircraft system designed in the Soviet Union in the 1950s and 1960s and circulated through many countries and conflicts in the decades after, including via knockoff production outside of Russia. It is a common system, if rather dated, >>>>>that poses marginal threats to modern military aircraft with modern countermeasures, but is a potential menace to civilian aircraft<<<<<.....”
Maybe someone will recover a piece of one of those rockets with a serial number or other identifier tagging it to Gaddafi’s former stockpile.
Rassiss!
Yes, and let’s just hope that someone isn’t the NTSB.
Do they do investigations in Syria?
The big deal is that the U.S.did it by providing weapons to AQ, as facilitated by our dead ambassador to Libya - which may be the primary reason he never got help when attacked. Loose lips sink administrations.
Nice list.
Thanks, it was my pleasure. :’)
Uh-oh, what was in 8 and 9? The mods nuked ‘em.
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