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A paratrooper from Mykolaiv has shot down a Russian Su-25 Grach attack aircraft using an Igla man-portable air defense system (MANPADS). "Today, on June 24, in one area, a serviceman with an air defense division of the Mykolaiv-based 79th Air Assault Brigade of the Ukrainian Air Assault Forces successfully shot down a Russian Su-25 Grach attack aircraft," the statement said. On June 22, Ukrainian paratroopers shot down an enemy Ka-52 Alligator attack helicopter in the east of the country.

#Ukraine: This morning, it is claimed that in the vicinity of #Kyiv a Russian Mi-35 attack helicopter was shot down, likely using MANPADS. It seems to be totally destroyed.

Congress authorizes Trump to arm Syrian rebels with anti-aircraft missiles The House voted for the first time today to explicitly authorize the incoming Donald Trump administration to arm vetted Syrian rebels with anti-aircraft missiles. Summary Today, the House passed a defense bill that conditionally allows the provision of MANPADs to anti-Syrian regime forces. Author Julian Pecquet Posted December 2, 2016 While the language in the annual defense bill also creates restrictions on the provision of the controversial weapons, it represents a win for Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman John McCain, R-Ariz., a fervent advocate of helping the rebels resist President...

The official news agency of the self-styled Islamic State claimed Monday that its forces shot down an American warplane. “The crew of the U.S. warplane that was shot down by Islamic State fighters near Ayn Asad Airbase is dead,” read a statement by the Amaq news agency. There was no immediate word from the Pentagon, nor did the Islamic State claim specify whether the air crew was killed in the crash or captured alive and executed.

Wanted: A Safer Anti-Aircraft Missile for Syrian Rebels by Clay Dillow April 21, 2016, 5:48 PM EDT Deadly surface-to-air weapons, now with expiration date. As the Syrian cease-fire unravels, U.S. officials have indicated that they may be willing to provide Syrian rebel groups with the kind of sophisticated, shoulder-fired anti-aircraft weaponry that just might turn the tide in the five-year-old conflict. But it will do so if, and only if, those weapons include a safety mechanism that restricts where and when they can be used, Foreign Policy reports. Syrian rebel groups have long clamored for shoulder-fired anti-aircraft weapons—known as “man-portable...

BAGHDAD — From the battlefield near Baiji, an Islamic State jihadist fired a heat-seeking missile and blew an Iraqi Army Mi-35M attack helicopter out of the sky this month, killing its two crew members. Since much of the most difficult fighting in the coming months is expected to unfold in the towns and cities of Anbar, American generals may be inclined to order more Apaches to support Iraqi ground troops. They may also make greater use of AC-130 gunships, a lumbering, propeller-driven plane bristling with cannons that circles at altitudes at the outer limits of some shoulder-fired missiles. Since at...

Just days after the United States began using Apache helicopters against the Islamic State group in Iraq, ISIS has responded by producing a guide to shooting down the iconic aircraft. The guide, which has been circulating on social media, explains in minute detail how to use portable surface-to-air missiles, such as the Russian-made SA-16 and SA-18 and the American FIM-92 Stinger, against the attack helicopter. The Stinger was heavily used during the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in the 1980s, when the shoulder-fired missiles provided by the U.S. to mujahideen fighters proved very effective at shooting down Soviet helicopters. They also...

KYIV, July 17 /Ukrinform/. The anti-terrorist operation (ATO) forces have found in Sloviansk a warehouse with Russian-produced ammunition that was abandoned by militants, the press center of the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) has reported. "In the educational building of the Sloviansk College of the National Aviation University law enforcers have found and defused an ammunition warehouse abandoned by militants from terrorist organizations," SBU said. In particular, SBU officers seized 24 cases of 37 mm shells, as well as more than a hundred empty boxes of ammunition for various weapons: man-portable air-defense systems, offensive and defensive grenades, etc. SBU is...

Defence and security company Saab’s man-portable weapon system Carl-Gustaf has been chosen by the U.S. Department of the Army to be a Program of Record within the U.S. Army. This means that the world leading shoulder-fired weapon system, with a long service record with the U.S. Special Operations Forces, will now become standard issue to the U.S. Army’s Light Infantry units. The Carl-Gustaf system will provide the U.S. Army with a capability that units using disposable shoulder fired munitions currently lack. This system has been a key component of the U.S. Special Operations Forces for over twenty years. “The fact...

Okay, it's only been reported on Twitter, but it sounds likely to be true. Sinai jihadis have deployed surface-to-air missiles for the first time. I'm going to post a series of tweets by Michael Hanna below. Michael is a senior fellow at the Century Foundation in New York City. Rena Netjes @RenaNetjes Fmr security general Saif AlYazl to CBC: "A Russian stringer 2 rocket has been fired on a military plane today in Sinai, for the first time.

Islamist militants shot down an Egyptian military helicopter in the Sinai Peninsula with a surface-to-air missile over the weekend, raising new alarms about the terrorist insurgency that developed there in response to the military takeover last summer. The attack — described by witnesses, documented in a video released by the militants, and confirmed by three people briefed on the Egyptian government’s investigation — validated longstanding fears that such weapons would spill into Egypt and beyond after the Libyan civil war tore open Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi’s fearsome arsenals. Known as manpads, for man-portable air defense systems, the missiles can bring down...

(Reuters) - Algerian troops discovered a huge arms cache near the border with Libya, including hundreds of surface-to-air missiles, rockets and landmines, an Algerian security source said on Thursday. ... The source said the cache was found in Illizi in southern Algeria, about 200 km (125 miles) from the Amenas gas plant, which Libyan-based Islamist militants attacked in January, killing nearly 40 foreign contractors. The weapons included 100 anti-aircraft missiles, more than 500 MANPAD shoulder-launched rockets often used against low flying aircraft like helicopters, and hundreds of rocket launchers, rifles, landmines and rocket-propelled grenades, the source added.

Terrorism is a tactic used by individuals with specific ideologies. Killing an ideology is nearly impossible. The war on terror is a complete misnomer. A war cannot be waged against a tactic. And proving to be an ideological war, evidence demonstrates that today, the tactic of terrorism is actually growing world-wide. Since 2001, the United States and our allies have been engaged in a complex war fighting against an ideology. Many people have been killed while many more have been maimed. Today, it is known via the University of Maryland’s Global Terrorism Database, deaths caused by terror have decreased yet...

The IDF has refused to officially comment on reports that Palestinian terrorists fired a shoulder-launched surface-to-air missile at an IAF helicopter over Gaza last week. According to the report, which appeared in Yediot Aharonot on Tuesday, the missile – identified as the low-altitude Strela SA-7 – missed its target. It was the first known attempt to bring down an IAF craft using advanced missiles in Gaza.

Israel has accelerated the installation of anti-missile defenses on its airliners, a security official said on Friday, seeing an enhanced risk of attack by militants using looted Libyan arms. Jets flown by El Al and two other Israeli carriers are being equipped with a locally made system known as C-Music that uses a laser to "blind" heat-seeking missiles, the official said, giving a 2013 target for fitting most of the fleet. As a stop-gap, Israel is adapting air force counter-measures for use aboard civilian planes, said the official, who declined to elaborate on the technologies involved, or to be identified....

More than six years after retired United Airline captain Ray Lahr launched his Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) petition into the fate of TWA Flight 800, the FBI has shown him—likely by accident—one seriously smoking gun. The Boeing 747 blew up off the coast of Long Island on July 17, 1996. One of the FBI documents received recently by Lahr and his attorney, John Clarke of Washington DC, details a communication that took place six days after the crash: "On Tuesday, July 23, 1996, a representative from the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) advised [the FBI] that after a visual analysis...

Pilot Reports 'Missile' Fired at Jetliner Near LAX (11/28/05) FBI agents and Homeland Security officials spent the weekend investigating the report of a possible missile fired at an American Airlines plane taking off from Los Angeles International Airport. Sources tell ABC News the pilot of American Airlines Flight 621, en route to Chicago, radioed air traffic controllers after takeoff from LAX. He told them a missile had been fired at the aircraft and missed. The plane was over water when the pilot said he saw a smoke trail pass by the cockpit. FBI agents believe it was a flare or...

Rocket jet plot is foiled Leader ... Sir Ian Blair     By RICHARD WHITEA SUSPECTED terrorist plot to stage a Christmas murder blitz in Britain was smashed yesterday by police and MI5. A 28-year-old Asian man was snared as he allegedly tried to buy a rocket launcher near the M25 South Mimms services. It is feared he planned to blast a holiday flight at a major UK airport. The British-born Muslim was kept under surveillance for weeks by Met chief Sir Ian Blair’s anti-terror cops and MI5 agents. He was lured to a road near the service station...

Two companies working for the government say they have successfully tested systems to defend passenger airplanes against shoulder-fired missiles. BAE Systems and Northrop Grumman both say they will meet the government's deadline of producing a workable system by January. It is unclear whether Congress or the Bush administration will require airlines to use the technology and, if they do, who will pay the multibillion-dollar tab for deployment and maintenance. AP Photo/Rex C. Curry A poster shows how BAE System's JETEYE, a missile defense system, would work on a commercial airliner as Burt Keirstead, background standing, program director, describes the system...

In the US house of representatives on a law one works, which prescribes an anti-missile defense system for all "jets with more than 800 seats". World-wide gives exactly one airplane, which fulfills this criterion: the A380. Meanwhile Singapore criticized airlines that the distribution of the new superairbus retards. Hamburg - in the competition with the European airplane manufacturer airbus can rely the US competitor Boeing after a report MIRRORS on support from the American parliament. The chairman in the aviation committee of the house of representatives, John Mica, started a legislative initiative, which aims alone at the airbus A380, which...