Taliban don't have stinger missiles: Gates

[mosu]

good job cheif

 

[Rusty]

It's been reported that the reason that the Taliban or other terrorist groups do not have Stinger missiles but it's also been reported
that the U.S. military can not confirm that Stingers were not used to down helicopters in Afghanistan. Some U.S. government agencies speculate that the missiles are to old and that they have degraded to much to not operate at all. I have some news for you on that subject and it's not good news. I am a U.S. Army veteran who operated and fired successfully in 1998 stinger missiles dated from 1976. The missiles that my unit were givin to live fire were from a stockpile and all but a handful used out of the 80 or so fired at aerial targets hit their mark. The missiles were over 20 years old and if the Taliban does posses Stingers it is very possible that they can use them successfully. There are factors though that could stop the Taliban or others from doing so. 1. The missiles must remain in a cool dry place for storage. 2. The cooling batteries for seeker heads must never be handled by hand or be subject to any static or they will not work. 3. The trigger assembly is not fool proof and if subjected to repeated abuse will not work. My government, the U.S. government I am sure is only down playing that the threat of Stingers but I am sure that the C.I.A. and NSA find the idea of terrorists having American missiles very viable.

The only question that should be asked is when will terrorists use them. It's not a matter of if they have them because it's been documented that in all likelyhood that they do. In my opinion I feel that a country like Iran is probably the one who would benefit from using Stingers against military and civilian aircraft. It is a strong possibility that Iran has possession of some of the leftover Stingers from the Afghan war with Russia. Who is to say that they will not attempt to use them or engineer their own version with the help of China. I guess only time will tell if Stingers or a knock off variant are going to play a roll in any future conflicts.

There is no doubt in my mind that Iran has already reverse engineered stingers. Heck they are reverse engineering a stealth drone as we speak.

It's been reported that the reason that the Taliban or other terrorist groups do not have Stinger missiles but it's also been reported
that the U.S. military can not confirm that Stingers were not used to down helicopters in Afghanistan. Some U.S. government agencies speculate that the missiles are to old and that they have degraded to much to not operate at all. I have some news for you on that subject and it's not good news. I am a U.S. Army veteran who operated and fired successfully in 1998 stinger missiles dated from 1976. The missiles that my unit were givin to live fire were from a stockpile and all but a handful used out of the 80 or so fired at aerial targets hit their mark. The missiles were over 20 years old and if the Taliban does posses Stingers it is very possible that they can use them successfully. There are factors though that could stop the Taliban or others from doing so. 1. The missiles must remain in a cool dry place for storage. 2. The cooling batteries for seeker heads must never be handled by hand or be subject to any static or they will not work. 3. The trigger assembly is not fool proof and if subjected to repeated abuse will not work. My government, the U.S. government I am sure is only down playing that the threat of Stingers but I am sure that the C.I.A. and NSA find the idea of terrorists having American missiles very viable.

The only question that should be asked is when will terrorists use them. It's not a matter of if they have them because it's been documented that in all likelyhood that they do. In my opinion I feel that a country like Iran is probably the one who would benefit from using Stingers against military and civilian aircraft. It is a strong possibility that Iran has possession of some of the leftover Stingers from the Afghan war with Russia. Who is to say that they will not attempt to use them or engineer their own version with the help of China. I guess only time will tell if Stingers or a knock off variant are going to play a roll in any future conflicts.

There is no doubt in my mind that Iran has already reverse engineered stingers. Heck they are reverse engineering a stealth drone as we speak.

 

[Audio]

I actually find it weird they do not have man portable AA. Like old Strela's or even Igla's....

Would be a natural step-up of their abilities considering a lot of flying is done.

 

[Black Widow]

The lessons to learn from viet, afghan, iraq war,


Never fight long war. Go kill and run away. the longer you stay the more you will suffer.


Some good example of small wars
1. china war on India.
2. Israel war with arab nations.
3. Bangla Mukti war.
etc.

 

[Hack-Hook]

It's been reported that the reason that the Taliban or other terrorist groups do not have Stinger missiles but it's also been reported
that the U.S. military can not confirm that Stingers were not used to down helicopters in Afghanistan. Some U.S. government agencies speculate that the missiles are to old and that they have degraded to much to not operate at all. I have some news for you on that subject and it's not good news. I am a U.S. Army veteran who operated and fired successfully in 1998 stinger missiles dated from 1976. The missiles that my unit were givin to live fire were from a stockpile and all but a handful used out of the 80 or so fired at aerial targets hit their mark. The missiles were over 20 years old and if the Taliban does posses Stingers it is very possible that they can use them successfully. There are factors though that could stop the Taliban or others from doing so. 1. The missiles must remain in a cool dry place for storage. 2. The cooling batteries for seeker heads must never be handled by hand or be subject to any static or they will not work. 3. The trigger assembly is not fool proof and if subjected to repeated abuse will not work. My government, the U.S. government I am sure is only down playing that the threat of Stingers but I am sure that the C.I.A. and NSA find the idea of terrorists having American missiles very viable.

The only question that should be asked is when will terrorists use them. It's not a matter of if they have them because it's been documented that in all likelyhood that they do. In my opinion I feel that a country like Iran is probably the one who would benefit from using Stingers against military and civilian aircraft. It is a strong possibility that Iran has possession of some of the leftover Stingers from the Afghan war with Russia. Who is to say that they will not attempt to use them or engineer their own version with the help of China. I guess only time will tell if Stingers or a knock off variant are going to play a roll in any future conflicts.

There is no doubt in my mind that Iran has already reverse engineered stingers. Heck they are reverse engineering a stealth drone as we speak.

well there is no doubt we have our own ManPad but it's not similar to Stinger at all . If you found this in the hand of Taliban then come and accuse us of benefiting from the use of these missiles against Civilian plans

Misagh-2 - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

[Abu Zolfiqar]

it was the stingers that ultimately changed the tide of the jihad against the soviets....even as the soviets signalled that they would withdraw, their gunships were getting shot down from the sky in large numbers

my native Kurram Agency was a transit point for a lot of the weapons.....in the villages some of the tribesmen kept pieces and components of those choppers as war trophies.

It is really no big deal if the Afghan taleban/resistance have Stinger missiles that were provided in 1980s.... those missiles are old and have a shelf life that have far exceeded their effective use today.

when the US/NATOs initiated operations in Afghanistan in 2001 you had all the spectacular reports from the media about the Stingers the mujahideen had - that would shoot down US aircraft. We now know the media sensationalism was unwarranted because the US has hardly had their aircrafts shot down by Stinger missiles and that is because of the shelf life issue. They used RPG-7s and small arms mostly and were lucky to have brought a small handful down over the course of the decade.

Firing those old Stingers at US aircraft would be requiring sheer luck --maybe even a miracle - in order to hit anything.

there were some reports i saw about private arms dealers from Iran and China banking on the opportunity - but i dont know how accurate they are

I actually find it weird they do not have man portable AA. Like old Strela's or even Igla's....

Would be a natural step-up of their abilities considering a lot of flying is done.

well i'm glad they dont because they'd try to find some cheap excuse to blame Pakistan and the 'evil/veritable arm ISI'

Hi,

If there were any left---they would have been used up by now---.

The original stinger batterrey packs would have degraded a while ago.

The BCU (the power source required to activate those Stingers) has a shelf life of about 10 years or so. After that (and if kept in poor storing conditions) they will indeed be degraded and useless

 

[MastanKhan]

Hi,

I think that if the stingers were to be used---they would have been launched by now, a longtime ago---. No country would sell the taliban any ground to air missiles and I very much doubt any weapons sellers in the black market would sell any of them either.

The only way possible----it would be the stockpiles stolen from libya---let us see where they show up.

 

[Vassnti]

The old stingers are gone a better question is where are the new ones.

It’s believed Gadhafi had an estimated 20,000 MANPADS when his regime collapsed, posing a “major proliferation challenge,” Shapiro said.

To date, about 5,000 MANPADS have been identified, recovered and secured, Shapiro said.

“We don’t know and probably will never know” how many MANPADS are still missing, he said.

This is partially because there was a lot the U.S. government did not know about Gadhafi’s conventional weapons stockpiles, Shapiro said.

It is unclear, for example, how many systems were used to train. A MANPADS launch tube can only be used once and then it is out of service, Shapiro said. Other systems could have been ruined by improper storage or exposure to the elements.

U.S. government teams are working to piece together a fuller picture, using packing slips found in MANPADS crates.

U.S. Still Hunting for Missing Libyan MANPADS | Defense News | defensenews.com

 

[Abu Zolfiqar]

some of the fighters in Libya made their way to Syria.....while west would love to see Assad's air force end up like Gaddafis - i dont think they would allow proliferation of unaccounted for MANPADs to Syria simply because of its proximity to israel and the danger it could pose to IDF aircrafts

it is true that NTC rebels raided and looted the arms caches/depos scattered throughout Tripoli and elsewhere.....Libya is literally awash in weapons now - as was/is Afghanistan -- when 'allies' abandoned the country and left it high and dry after their work was completed.

 

[Mav3rick]

Russia had golden chance to take revange of afghan war, But russians don't believing in backstabbing.


I apriciate russian stand, and condemn American cheap tactics.

Any way american were also right, they revanged the vietnaam war.

Can you make up your mind? They are either wrong or right.

Anyway, The Russians should have paid back Americans in the same coin as they did. I guess Russians just don't have the guts, I mean in all their engagements, it has almost always been Russia (formerly the Soviet Union) that backed down.

it was the stingers that ultimately changed the tide of the jihad against the soviets....even as the soviets signalled that they would withdraw, their gunships were getting shot down from the sky in large numbers

my native Kurram Agency was a transit point for a lot of the weapons.....in the villages some of the tribesmen kept pieces and components of those choppers as war trophies.

It is really no big deal if the Afghan taleban/resistance have Stinger missiles that were provided in 1980s.... those missiles are old and have a shelf life that have far exceeded their effective use today.

when the US/NATOs initiated operations in Afghanistan in 2001 you had all the spectacular reports from the media about the Stingers the mujahideen had - that would shoot down US aircraft. We now know the media sensationalism was unwarranted because the US has hardly had their aircrafts shot down by Stinger missiles and that is because of the shelf life issue. They used RPG-7s and small arms mostly and were lucky to have brought a small handful down over the course of the decade.

Firing those old Stingers at US aircraft would be requiring sheer luck --maybe even a miracle - in order to hit anything.

there were some reports i saw about private arms dealers from Iran and China banking on the opportunity - but i dont know how accurate they are



well i'm glad they dont because they'd try to find some cheap excuse to blame Pakistan and the 'evil/veritable arm ISI'





The BCU (the power source required to activate those Stingers) has a shelf life of about 10 years or so. After that (and if kept in poor storing conditions) they will indeed be degraded and useless

Besides, even more importantly, the US manned air assets have defensive counter measures so I seriously doubt any of those working stingers would be effective.

 

[Edevelop]

Taliban may have the same stingers from the Afghan war in the 80s. However, they may not have the missiles. Either they built it of their own which i doubt or have been provided by Pakistan

 

[somebozo]

Russia had golden chance to take revange of afghan war, But russians don't believing in backstabbing.


I apriciate russian stand, and condemn American cheap tactics.

Any way american were also right, they revanged the vietnaam war.

I condemn your cheap mentality because millions of afghans paid by their lives for this chess game of super powers.

 

[Abu Zolfiqar]

I condemn your cheap mentality because millions of afghans paid by their lives for this chess game of super powers.

and yet we are the only one that gets blamed

luckily we will never be on the wrong side of history, vis-a-vis Afghanistan....

 

[anonymus]

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