Putin: "What did I tell you Turks? Payback is a bitch! More SA 18s are on the way to the PKK".
Posted on 05/16/2016 4:15:18 AM PDT by Trump20162020
ISTANBUL — They were used to stalk Russian helicopters in Afghanistan, and the United States has worked hard to keep them out of chaotic Syria. But now Kurdish guerrillas battling Turkey's security forces may now have shoulder-fired missiles — an acquisition analysts say will seriously challenge Turkish air power and potentially intensify fighting in the region.
About four minutes into the video, the fighter, clad in camouflage fatigues, crouches on a verdant hillside with the weapons system on his shoulder. When the launcher locks on its target — a helicopter whirring noisily on the horizon — the fighter stands to fire. The heat-seeking missile swoops through the air and strikes the Cobra's tail, sending the aircraft spinning and eventually crashing into the mountainside.
But the use of a surface-to-air missile — which arms experts said is likely a Russian-made 9K38 Igla — is a new and troubling development. It's unclear where the militants, who maintain bases in both Turkey and Iraq, would have obtained the weapon system. But former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein was known to have acquired the same Russian-made system in the 1980s, as did Libyan strongman Moammar Gaddafi.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
The SA-18 GROUSE (Igla 9K38) is a portable SAM
with a 2 kg warhead using IR and convergence techniques.
Maximum range is 5200 m, with a purported
max altitude of 3500 m.
Wonder if they are this really, and how they really
differ from those given by Clinton and Obama
to al Qaeda at Benghazi over the dead bodies of Americans
while rescue forces waited, and waited, and waited?
It’s interesting to note that though the Washington (com)Post whines about “increased fighting” because of the use of air defense weapons, it was air defense, and other defensive weapons that ended Russia’s invasion of Afghanistan in the 80s.
There was that little incident where the Russians had a collum of soldiers go through a tunnel where the Rebels exploded tankers in both ends of the tunnel causing mucho death and destruction.
Would lead one to believe the Russian leaders were poorly trained.
Then our CIA gives the rebels shoulder fired anti aircraft weapons and poof, the Russians get the hell out of Afghanistan.
Except for that time Obama conspired to smuggle them INTO Syria, in great amounts.
We don't talk about that time.
Putin: "What did I tell you Turks? Payback is a bitch! More SA 18s are on the way to the PKK".
When it comes to Syria, the US is hardly working....
The video I saw I couldn’t believe how little time the launch to explosion took. These weapons are becoming as available as RPGs. Not a good thing.
Nice shooting.
Salang tunnel looks like a convoy road accident in a tunnel in a high mountain pass. Hundreds dead from flames and smoke. Rebels took credit though there is not a single credible source or description of how they attacked.
The CIA loves doing that. Taking credit for anything they can as though they were a hidden hand.
The missile thing in Afghanistan was true. very successful.
Interesting how fast it happened. What is it about the sand monkeys that they have to add music to every video. Feel bad for that crew.
If Turkey had any sense, they’d support a Kurdistan off in the corner, and be done with it. this is one of the most pointless wars ever. And that’s saying something. I think they all just love to fight and always will. Its a mark of the absence of anything worthwhile in that culture.
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