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Germany’s Defence Ministry has declined to comment after the press learnt on Thursday that around 700 of the missiles they planned to send to Ukraine were found to be so old they had become inoperable. Berlin had planned to send Ukraine 2,700 ‘Strela’ rockets dating back to the German Communist era, as part of the weapons package Germany had prepared to help Kyiv fend off the Russian invasion, but at least 700 have been revealed to be defective, with the boxes they’re stored in being described as “mouldy”. The rockets had initially been designed for use by the National People’s...

Members of illegal armed units have not seized air defense launchers of the Ukrainian Armed Forces in Donetsk, Ukrainian Prosecutor General Vitaliy Yarema said. "The military told the president after the passenger plane had been shot down [in the Donetsk region] that the terrorists did not possess our Buk and S-300 missile systems. Such had not been seized," the prosecutor general told the Ukrainska Pravda online edition after the Thursday meeting of the Ukrainian National Security and Defense Council. The Ukrainian Defense Ministry said earlier air defense missile systems of the Ukrainian Armed Forces had not been used in the...

The FARC and the Quest for Surface to Air Missiles By Douglas Farah SNIPPET: "The Miami Herald today reports that the Colombian FARC has likely already fulfilled its long-time goal of purchasing surface to air missiles to be used against U.S.-supplied helicopters in Colombia. The FARC has long placed a very high strategic priority on acquiring SAMs, going back to at least 2003. The commanders officially requested money from Libya and Nicaragua at that time to purchase the weapons because the insurgency was being so badly hurt by helicopters acquired by the military and police." SNIPPET: "It is not a...

The United States won agreement from Asian and Pacific Rim governments to sharply restrict the use and transfer of shoulder-fired missiles that could be used terrorist groups to shoot down passenger planes. Meeting with Asian foreign ministers, Secretary of State Powell called for joint action to control trade in the American-made Stinger, Russian "Strela" and "Igla" MANPADS (Man-Portable Air Defense Systems). These are shoulder fired missiles that weight under 30 pounds. The United States government had previously resisted formal international restrictions on the transfer of shoulder-fired missiles. The regional press is already misinterpreting the initiative as a "ban on purchasing"....

MOSCOW: Ten shoulder-fired missile launchers stolen from a Russian naval arsenal have been recovered and returned, a military official said on Thursday. The Strela-1 missile launchers were stolen two weeks ago from an arsenal in Bolshiye Izhory outside St Petersburg. Police have identified the thief of the missiles and the stolen weapons have been returned to the arsenal, Mikhail Yanenko, press officer for the military prosecutor general's office said. Separatist rebels in Russia's Chechnya region have often used shoulder-fired missiles to shoot down Russian helicopters, including three that were shot down last year near the main Russian military base in...

News reports say that al-Qaeda terrorists may have smuggled shoulder-fired anti-aircraft missiles into the United States. We give you the full rundown on what these weapons can do, how they work, where they may come from, and how they might be used. It's all here for you, on Winds of Change!