To launch it would require a great deal of sophistication. Possibility would be a privately owned former military aircraft available, but even that would require a lot of wiring and the addition of a pylon. All doable but the only way a terror group would go the Air to Air route is if they could not obtain one of the multitude of shoulder launched systems still missing. It could also be a dumb$hit terror wannabe who thought they had a plan.
AF1 never flies unescorted. A small plane or outdated military aircraft would be a beautiful target for any modern aircraft. I can assure you they would not get within locking range of AF1. The minute they pinged AF1 they would be attacked. There are other options of course, maybe it was enroute to a private militaria collector. Somebody failed to check to make sure the warhead was inert. Similar stories abound so it has probably happened before. I have seen collectors with entire aircraft sitting in their back yard. They are not and never will be flyable again they just look cool.
It is also possible terrorists wanted the warhead. If so why ship the whole missile and take a chance?
Highly unusual. Not really funny.
I’m sure there would be a way to use it. Probably those who accidently delivered it would know best.
You’re enemies include plenty of infiltrators throughout what’s left of USGov and our military. Plenty of infiltration.
Interesting...
Why it ended up there is anyones guess.
IR and semi-active RADAR homing—paint your target from a separate radar, the reflection of which is detected by the missile receiving unit for initial guidance. IR provides final guidance at intercept.