Posted on 03/04/2010 10:12:52 PM PST by ErnstStavroBlofeld
Mostly used up in IED/Road-Side bomb type devices over the past few years?
I’m not so worried about SA-7s - they have a nasty habit of not working at all, and an even nastier habit of exploding-on-launch. Some of them even have an amusing habit of circling back on launch and blowing up the guy who launched it.
You would have better results with massed rifle fire.
The Muj had the US spending a billion a year supplying them with arms (including sophisticated anti-air systems) when they fought against the Russians, Iran isn't spending that much or giving them as good weaponry. Most people don't remember (and the Afghans being primary here) that it was the US, Pakistan and Egypt that really won them their victory against the Russians, now they have no allies.
Without a major state backing them, the Taleban are just primatives using small arms and some RPG's. Why else do you think they've turned to the IED as their weapon of choice.
The CIA shipped a batch of 300 Stingers to the rebels in 1986 and 700 more the following year. Where are they?
Any Stinger missiles issued to the Muj in the 80s are now dead, their chemical batteries and argon injection system having long since expired.
Even if you somehow managed to recharge the units, you really don’t want to fire them because after about 10 years the solid rocket motor starts developing cracks and other problems. At which point - explode-on-launch.
It is rumored that some made it way to North Korea to fix the power problem.
I guess you would have to count the number of SOviet aircraft splattered across the sandbox, for a start, eh?
The mujahideen also dispensed Stingers to their Islamic allies. Among the lucky recipients were rebel groups in places like Tajikistan, Chechnya, and Algeria. Meanwhile, the Pentagon approved the sale of Stingers to at least 21 countries, mostly NATO allies but also Israel, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and South Korea. The Soviets stole design data and Stinger components from the Greek army and used the information to build the SAM-14 Gremlin, which is said to be a virtual copy of the Stinger
The Stinger’s been cloned elsewhere, too - but the original Stingers we issued the Muj are long dead. If you somehow found a lone survivor and managed to overhaul the BCU unit (good luck with that), it would almost certainly explode when you fired it. The BCU can only last five years and the rocket motor ten at the outside.
I dunno, there have been probably thousands of IED explosions over the past 5 years in ‘stan and Iraq... Some pretty big ones too... If they can’t fly, blow’em on the ground? Just saying...
It was a very effective anti-aircraft weapon.
Yes, but those aren’t going to be the original Stingers we issued to the Angolans or Muj any more and therefore aren’t our responsibility.
But we knew who had them
They have aged and are inoperative.
So? What difference does that make in a world where the Soviets/Russians and Chinese hand out MANPADS to nearly anyone for free and the French will sell anything they have for cheap?
By the way, the SA-14 was also a sick joke; and it predates the Stinger. The SA-18 (current Russian MANPADS) predates the Stinger transfers, too, and it still isn’t nearly as effective, even given the latest upgrades.
I would be MORE worried about just where all of the French Mistral missiles have gone.
The Russians reversed engineered the Stinger in built the SA-14 Gremlin. There are clones out there
But there are clones of the Stinger out there and makes them dangerous as the parent.
That’s an interesting comment considering the SA-14 entered service in 1974 and the Stinger entered service in 1981.
I’m pretty sure they didn’t reverse engineer something that first appeared 7 years in the future.
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