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In the last few years, intelligence analysts have noted that very few portable anti-aircraft missiles have been discovered in any of the thousands of Taliban and al Qaeda weapons caches found in Afghanistan. It is generally believed, at least by the mass media, that there are thousands of these portable missiles, particularly the Russian SAM-7 (and some later versions) on the black market. Maybe, but not really. Part of the reason is that it is easy to track a missile, used in a successful attack on military or commercial aircraft, to the country (or even factory) or origin. For that...

MANAGUA, Nicaragua (AP) - A U.S. government delegation worked Tuesday to convince Nicaragua to destroy about 1,000 surface-to-air missiles left over from the 1980s Contra war. In Washington, State Department spokesman Richard Boucher confirmed that a U.S. team was in the Nicaraguan capital to renew efforts to have the portable SAM-7 missiles destroyed. The team's leader, Rose Likins, the acting assistant secretary for political and military affairs, did not comment as she arrived in Nicaragua. U.S. officials have been trying to convince Nicaragua to give up the missiles, which were supplied by the Soviet Union when the former Sandinista government...

Equipping the U.S. Army's 2,500 helicopters with defenses against shoulder fired surface-to-air missiles (like the SAM-7 or Stinger), would cost $5-7 billion and take up to a year, or more. A typical system has two components. First, there are four ultraviolet detection sensors (weighing about four pounds each) mounted on different parts of the helicopter to detect an approaching missile. These sensor are linked to an eleven pound computer that contains software for determining that the object is indeed a missile and where it is headed. The detection computer is hooked to a countermeasures system using either flares and chaff...

http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/world/20030901-0838-nicaragua-missiles.html Nicaragua says it has 2,000 anti-aircraft missiles ASSOCIATED PRESS 8:38 a.m. September 1, 2003 MANAGUA, Nicaragua – Nicaragua's army chief, urged by Washington to destroy surface-to-air missiles, says his country has 2,000 of the missiles worth more than $100 million. In remarks published Monday by the newspaper La Prensa, Gen. Javier Carrion McDonough expressed understanding of U.S. concerns about such weapons in the wake of the Sept. 11 terror attacks on New York and Washington, D.C. "It is said that there are between 200,000 and 500,000 missiles around the world in the hands of armed forces or whatever," he...