Countering the MANPADS Threat: Strategies for Success

In the 1980s, Afghan rebels shot down 269 Soviet military aircraft, including small, fast fighter jets, with their Stinger missiles, a remarkable accomplishment that is often credited with turning the tide of the war.9 More recently, a "highly trained" team of Iraqi insurgents shot down a...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Arms control today 2007-09, Vol.37 (7), p.6-11
Main Author: Schroeder, Matt
Format: Magazinearticle
Language:English
Subjects:
Air defense
Aircraft
Airlines
Arms control & disarmament
Civil aviation
Control
Equipment and supplies
Helicopters
Insurgency
Military aspects
Military defense
Missiles
National security
Political aspects
Safety and security measures
Statistics
Surface-to-air missiles
Terrorism
Terrorists
Weapons
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Summary:In the 1980s, Afghan rebels shot down 269 Soviet military aircraft, including small, fast fighter jets, with their Stinger missiles, a remarkable accomplishment that is often credited with turning the tide of the war.9 More recently, a "highly trained" team of Iraqi insurgents shot down a DHL cargo plane with a first-generation SA-7 missile near Baghdad International Airport.10 Since then, missile-wielding insurgents have shot down a C-17 Globemaster cargo plane, a C-5 Galaxy transport plane, and several helicopters. After the fall of Saddam Hussein's regime in 2003, as many as 4,000 missiles were pilfered from Iraqi arms stockpiles, leading to an estimated threefold increase in the number of black market missiles worldwide.38 In response to this looting, the GAO recommended that the U.S. military "incorporate conventional munitions storage site security as a strategic planning factor into all levels of planning policy and guidance."
ISSN:0196-125X
1943-5754