Posted on 09/09/2009 9:14:43 PM PDT by OldSpice
What is the mysterious weapons cargo in the China-bound UAE Air Force’s C-130 Hercules aircraft detained at Kolkata Airport since Sunday?
Defence and intelligence sleuths say it could be a sophisticated US-made weapons system, which explains the unconcealed concern of the Indian authorities and the silence on the part of the UAE government.
UAE authorities applied to the Indian government to get the plane released on Wednesday evening — nearly 72 hours after it was detained. The plane has been given a take-off slot of 9.30am on Thursday for China’s Xiangyang.
Sources confirmed that the three mysterious boxes in the aircraft contain ‘‘combat missiles’’ but were mum on the details. Defence and intelligence sleuths, probing the case, don’t rule out the possibility of the deadly US-made Harpoon missiles being channelized to China from UAE and Egypt.
If what Indian investigators suspect is true, the unauthorized proliferation could lead to regional imbalances and trigger a crisis. ‘‘This is serious. Already, there are reports of Pakistan having modified Harpoon missiles to strike land targets in India,’’ an analyst pointed out.
Earlier:
UAE air force plane carrying arms, admits pilot
8 September 2009
The Times of India
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2334213/posts
KOLKATA: After trying to fob off Indian officials and investigators all of Sunday night, one of the pilots of the United Arab Emirates air force aircraft detained at Kolkata airport since Sunday finally admitted to the plane carrying a consignment of weapons.
The C-130 Hercules among the biggest transport aircraft in the world was on its way to Xiangyang, China, from UAEAF’s Western Air Command base in Abu Dhabi. Although the UAE government had the necessary clearances from Indian authorities for the flight to land in Kolkata, it had not informed that the aircraft would be carrying weapons.
Indian Customs and airport officials interrogated the nine-member crew till Monday afternoon. After that, the ministry of defence (MoD) took over. Talks are on in Delhi to avert a possible diplomatic row. Officials here are tight-lipped.
On September 3, the UAE government had applied to the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) for a flight information centre clearance that was necessary for a military aircraft not only to overfly Indian airspace but also land at a civilian airport.
An air defence/AOR clearance was also sought from MoD through proper channels. “As permission was sought through proper diplomatic channels and UAE is a friendly country, the clearances were given. Both applications were made in specific proformas with columns where the UAE authorities were supposed to mention if the aircraft would be carrying any weapons. These columns were marked ‘nil’ in both applications. Later, it was discovered that the aircraft was indeed carrying weapons. This was in clear violation of rules and the crew was detained,” said a senior officer.
The aircraft was to land in Kolkata around 4 pm on Sunday, refuel, stay for the night and take off for China at 10.30 am on Monday. Crew members were booked for the night at a star hotel.
It was 5.30 pm on Sunday by the time the Hercules captain, Ismail Samsi, sought permission from Kolkata ATC to land. The details of what happened after this are slightly hazy. One version is that the pilot was asked upon landing whether his aircraft was carrying any weapon. He answered in the negative. But an alert Customs officer saw a sidearm on one of the crew members. Soon, a team from air intelligence arrived to check the plane for its cargo.
According to another version, every foreign aircraft parked in the bay overnight is checked. Customs officials accompany the crew on board for an inspection before the doors are sealed. That was when they noted something amiss.
There is a third version, which speaks of a tip received by Indian intelligence agencies from an undisclosed source.
A team from the air intelligence wing, led by B Jha, boarded the aircraft around 7 pm on Sunday and found three boxes that resembled those for carrying rifles. The pilot admitted there were weapons inside but that he did not have any details. He allegedly told officials that he was a mere courier and would often fly weapons to China for ‘tests’.
The crew who were in military uniform were detained and led to the airport lounge. The plane was towed to hangar 14 and sealed. No effort was made to open the boxes in the cargo hold. The interrogation lasted till 2 pm on Monday after which the nine crew members now in civilian clothing were transferred to a hotel. According to the customs department, the ministry of defence would interrogate the crew there.
“Although the pilot’s declaration regarding the weapons on board has dismissed the theory of the crew being involved in gun-running, the aircraft cannot be allowed to leave. All clearances granted have expired. There are some issues that still need to be checked out. We have also demanded an explanation from the UAE embassy in New Delhi,” an officer said. The army is guarding the plane.
Extremely serious.
We save their bacon —THIS is how they thank us...?
Hand over yer oil fields....
AAAHH HAAA!
Thought so.
ChiComs doing some Russian engineering.
The Chinese have better missiles than the Harpoon of their own.
Somebody has some explaining to do.
I very seriously doubt this was the first time.
We gave them to the Pakistanis back in the mid 80’s, Really blistering new technology there.
They did not look so dangerous then, or so we were told.
It is interesting the difference in the world that the stripped pants dudes at the Department of State live in vs. the “Spooks”. One lives in an imaginary world of “negotiation” and the other lives in a real world of brutal undertow.
Reality?
That is like Einstein said, it depends on your point of perspective. I always liked his analogy of the man dropping a steel ball from the flatcar on a train moving at a constant speed. From his perspective the ball fell straight to the ground (ignoring the wind) but a man viewing the same event from the ground saw the ball drop in a parabolic decent.
Perspective is critical.
democrats are back in the white house... weapons designs and arms shipments of our most advanced stuff may resume shipping to China without delay
and no, that is not sarcastic
What are the chances that Clinton traded these for the realse of the 2 reporters? The Chinese wouldn’t exactly give those 2 girls up for free...
If this is what Beck is talking about on twitter it could very well be. I had not thought of that.
BTTT
How old are the Mk-82 general purpose bombs used these days?
The question is who has the harpoon in current inventory? Japan? Taiwan? the USA? If any of these use the harpoon, it would be very useful for China to have some to use to test their anti-missle defenses.
WTF is wrong with you? Are you saying you can glean no new information even from an older technology???!?
The UAE was among the first customers of the Harpoon Block-II. It uses GPS guidance in addition to radar, has improved range and can hit land targets-does the 20 year old Harpoons have any of these capabilities??
The Chinese don’t have anything similar either.Besides their fabled supersonic anti-ship missiles are far heavier and can only be carried on a handful of ships and one aircraft-the SU 30. Now compare that to the Harpoon.
The story is a none story.
If strapping a GPS system from Ebay was the way forward-even Sudan would have land attack missiles.
In the NY TIMES of April 4, 1998, Jeff Gerth with Raymond Bonner exposed a manipulation wherein the US government and 2 major American arms companies transferred Ballistic Missile technology to China. As a Grand Jury was investigating whether 2 American companies (Loral Space & Communications and Hughes Electronics) gave China space expertise that significantly advanced Beijing's ballistic missile program, President Clinton approved of this transfer 2 months ago.
The US Navy doesn’t even use Harpoon Block-II. We don’t use any variant of the Harpoon anymore.
Would you freak out if the Chinese got their hands on a Mk-82?
I don’t expect the Chinese to smuggle Mk-82s.
The US got its knickers into a wad over Saddam’s SCUDS, basically a souped up V2 rocket over half a century old.
Stupid of the UAE, but my guess is this was not the first time.
Intel tip? Israelis ;>....or a combo of all factors, the sidearm on the crew, a security check in the tarmac...
Dubai, where they play ALL sides against all.
One of our chief allies, THE supplier for Iran for all kinds of things via its ports and airfields, host to all kinds of jihadis looking for lawyers, guns and money.
HAHAHA!
I haven't heard anything about the Harpoon, or it's land-attack varient the SLAM, being retired from service. Last I've heard all our air/ship/sub-launched Harpoon variants are still in service. And we even use Penguin light anti-ship missiles for the Seahawks.
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