Joint UK, US & Russian Anti-Terror Sting

[Royal]

According to the BBC an Anglo-Indian arms dealer has been arrested by the FBI in a sting involving 50 Russian Igla SAM's. Air Force One was mentioned as a target by the BBC.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/3146025.stm

[Argyll]

Shows you how easy it can be done!!

[budanski]

Do you have anything to declare?

Just this MANPAD.

Hmm....It looks Cuban. You'll have to come with me.

[He219]

Analysis: Russian missiles (http://quickstart.clari.net/qs_se/webnews/wed/bt/Uukraine-terrorists-analysis.Rj25_Du9.html) for terrorists?

http://www.naval-technology.com/projects/mirage_boat/images/mirage4.jpg
"IGLA" - 1M
http://www.zid.ru/images/products/military/igla.jpg

"IGLA" (http://www.zid.ru/en/products/military/igla.html) 9K38 portable anti-aircraft missile system (PAMS) / Missile 9M39

http://a1112.g.akamai.net/7/1112/492/03312000/news.lycos.com/news/ot_getImage.asp?op=img&id=394205

Indian airmen display the Igla IM missile system, a portable anti aircraft weapon, designed in Russia, during a joint exercise with the French airforce in Gwalior, India, in this Feb.12, 2003 file photo. It is reported late Tuesday aug. 12, 2003, that the FBI in America has arrested a British man, allegedly involving an Igla shoulder-fired missile similar to this being imported into the USA, according to unidentified authorities on Tuesday. (AP Photo/Manish Swarup)

[Seraphim]

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20030812/ap_on_re_us/missile_plot_arrest


By CURT ANDERSON, Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON - Federal authorities said Tuesday they foiled an international plot to smuggle into the United States a shoulder-fired missile that could shoot down a commercial airliner.


A British man was arrested in Newark, N.J., after agreeing to sell a Russian Igla missile to an undercover FBI (news - web sites) agent posing as a Muslim extremist, according to a federal law enforcement official who spoke on condition of anonymity. A state law-enforcement official said the arrest occurred at a hotel near Newark International Airport.


The understanding between the man and the undercover agent was that the missile needed to be capable of bringing down a commercial airliner, the official said. It was unclear whether the missile ever made it into the United States.


Authorities stressed that no specific, credible threat was connected to the alleged plot.


The man's name and the charges were not immediately disclosed.


The law enforcement official said he does not appear to be connected to a known terrorist group. The suspect is thought to be more of an arms dealer or smuggler, the official said.


The arrest is part of a broader investigation by the FBI, British and Russian authorities. At least two more arrests were expected.


Justice Department (news - web sites) officials had no immediate comment on the case.


Concerns about terrorists using shoulder-fired missiles to shoot down commercial airliners increased in November when two SA-7 missiles narrowly missed an Israeli passenger jet after it took off from Mombasa, Kenya. Officials concluded that al-Qaida probably was behind the attack, which coincided with a bomb blast at a nearby hotel.


Hundreds and perhaps thousands of shoulder-fired missiles — heat-seeking rockets that can hit low-flying aircraft within three miles — are said to be available on the worldwide arms market. Older missile launchers can be bought for as little as several thousand dollars.


Chechen rebels have used Igla shoulder-fired missiles against Russian military aircraft. Last week they used a missile to shoot down a Russian helicopter, killing three of the crew. And last year the rebels shot down a Russian troop-carrying helicopter, killing more than 100 people.


The Homeland Security Department has asked U.S. high-tech companies to look into developing anti-missile technology for commercial planes. Critics in Congress say the agency is not moving quickly enough or spending enough on the project.


Sen. Charles Schumer (news, bio, voting record), D-N.Y., is backing a bill introduced by Sen. Barbara Boxer (news, bio, voting record), D-Calif., that calls for outfitting all of the roughly 6,800 planes in the U.S. commercial fleet with anti-missile defenses. The cost is estimated at $10 billion.


"The danger of an airliner being shot down by one of these missiles is now staring the Homeland Security Department in the face," Schumer said. "The fact that DHS is planning to take at least two years to develop a missile defense prototype to outfit the U.S. commercial fleet verges on the dangerous."


Meantime, the United States has sent experts to domestic airports as well as to airports in Iraq (news - web sites) and major capitals in Europe and Asia to assess security. The investigators are trying to determine whether the airports can be defended against shoulder-fired missiles.


World leaders meeting in Evian, France, in June acknowledged the threat posed by shoulder-fired missiles and adopted a plan to restrict sales of the weapons.

[usa320]

This is significant...

50 Iglas... figure about 40 of them are probably functional, there are always a few bad ones in a batch (remember the kenya missiles).

Figure 40 missiles, fired at 40 planes, about 100 people on each jet (terrorists wouldnt bother with a small commuter or cessna).... If each missile work and had hit a half full 757 or 767, it would have inflicted nearly twice as many casualties as 9-11-01, just considering the air casualties. There would also be the possibility of the plane hitting things on the ground, which would be more deaths... So alot of lives were saved today, but there is still much work to be done.

I think they need to really consider putting IR jammers on airliners... THe type used on teh Ah-64. They automatically detect incomming IR guided missiles, and send out a flash of laser light which ruins the missiles guidance system.

[GazB]

"I think they need to really consider putting IR jammers on airliners... THe type used on teh Ah-64. They automatically detect incomming IR guided missiles, and send out a flash of laser light which ruins the missiles guidance system."

Such jammers only jam older model missiles. The Russians have found they attract more modern missiles. DIRCMs are needed, and they aren't cheap or even 100% feasable around a civi airport...

Also if you are talking about new missiles fresh from the factory then a 20% failure rate is rather high. The vast majority of the missiles the Chechens used were taken from army stocks at bases located in Chechnia when they took over. The vast majority of missiles the Afghans have (ie taleban) were American supplied. Time sensitive batteries could be replaced easily. Time sensitive fuel will probably just increase misfires and shorten range.

[duck]

How has El Al tackled this problem?

[martinexsquaddie]

The danger area for a man pad i.e the area from which you can launch at a landing or taking off airliner is massive had a friend did home defence training trying to defend us air bases in east anglia against spetnaz types apprantly the soviets were working on or had some sort of mine based on an SA7 Volley fired could probably take out a C5.

[Chops]

Martin

I saw something on BBC24 today at work with a quote from Jane's AD guy saying the Soviets were developing a twin barrel MANPAD- anybody know anything more on this?

rgds

Chops

[budanski]

Terrorist Missiles Versus Airliners
by James Dunnigan
strategypage (http://www.strategypage.com/dls/articles/20030813a.asp)
August 13, 2003

An Indian arms dealer was caught trying to illegally import a Russian SA-18 Igla shoulder fired anti-aircraft missile to an FBI agent posing as an Islamic terrorist. Terrorists trying to take down airliners with portable missiles has been a threat for a long time. Actually, over the last thirty years, it's been a reality. Some 29 commercial aircraft have been shot down by such missiles. However, the downed aircraft have been small, and most of these tragedies have taken place in Africa. The wars in Africa are the worst on the planet, so violent that most journalists avoid them. For three decades, this has kept the use of portable missiles against civilian aircraft off the front page.

Larger airliners, like the Airbus's, and 757s, 767s and 747s, have not been brought down because these missiles were not designed to take on aircraft with such large and powerful engines. While these missiles were originally intended for use against jet fighters operating over the battlefield, the reality turned out to be different. The most likely targets encountered were helicopters, or propeller driven transports. These aircraft proved to be just the sort of thing twenty pound missiles with 2-3 pound warheads could destroy. Against jet fighters with powerful engines, the missiles caused some damage to the tailpipe, but usually failed to bring down the jet. This was first noted during the 1973 Arab-Israeli war, where the Egyptians fired hundreds of SA-7s at Israeli A-4 light bombers. Most of the A-4s, with their 11,187 pounds of thrust engines, survived the encounter. Larger jets, like the F-4 and it's 17,000 pound thrust engines, were even more difficult to bring down. Smaller commercial jets, like the 737 or DC-9 (each using two 14,000 pounds of thrust engines) have proved vulnerable. But a 757 has much larger engines with 43,000 pounds of thrust, and the 747 is 63,000. Moreover, the rear end of jet engines are built to take a lot of punishment from all that hot exhaust spewing out. Put a bird into the front of the engine and you can do some real damage. But these missiles home in on heat, and all of that is at the rear end of the engine.

If terrorists target helicopters and smaller turboprop commuter airliners, or business jets, they are likely to take down aircraft better than half the time a missile is used. This takes into account poorly trained missile operators and defective missiles. And a lot of the missile operators will be poorly trained, and, like November, 2002 incident in Mombassa, using missiles built over two decades ago. They won't be using any of the Stingers the U.S. gave out in Afghanistan during the 1980s. The custom battery packs in those missiles gave out in the 1990s. It's a lot easier to get Russian missiles, and fresh batteries for them.

Another option for terrorists is to use anti-tank guided missiles (ATGM) against larger airliners. An ATGM is more accurate and hitting a 747, taking off, in an engine or the main fuel tank between the wings, there is a good chance that the aircraft would crash. But how do you get ATGM? Simple, from one of the Chechen criminal gangs that get all manner of weapons and equipment from light fingered Russian soldiers. The Russians have been cracking down on this illegal arms trade, especially when it comes to surface-to-air missiles. This no doubt was the reason why there was such good cooperation from the Russians in the recent attempt to get a missile into the United States. The Russians knew that if someone was selling SA-18s illegally, the missile would be more likely to be used against Russians than anyone else.

Modern countermeasures for these missiles are mounted on many military aircraft, and some Israeli commercial airliners. These countermeasures consist of a heat detector that is programmed to spot the telltale heat from a launched missile, and then launch a flare that puts out more heat than the engines. But the most modern missiles are programmed to see through this deception. The exact status of the countermeasures versus the most modern missiles in unknown. However, it is known that military aircraft using the countermeasures tend to eject lots of flares, just to be on the safe side. To equip all American commercial aircraft with countermeasures would cost some ten billion dollars (higher ticket prices), plus hundreds of millions a year to maintain them (and more flight delays because it's another piece of equipment that could fail selftest before takeoff.) Another problem is that these countermeasures would have more "false positives" than actual use, meaning there would be problems with flares coming down in inhabited areas, or dry forests and starting fires.

There are several hundred thousand portable surface-to-air missiles out there, but most of them are older models like the SA-7. Many of these are defective from old age, or rough treatment. This is known because of the consistently poor performance of these older missiles.

Also keep in mind that, with all those missiles out there, and so many terrorists (not just Islamic ones) eager to use them against civilians, very few are used. Many of the terrorists know that most of those SA-7s are crap, and that explains why they are looking for the harder to get modern missiles.

[He219]

Here is the greedy little Dirtbag........

http://wwwi.*******.com/images/2003-08-13T170855Z_01_WAS100D_RTRIDSP_2_SECURITY-MISSILE-COURT.jpg

Hemant Lakhani is driven by FBI agents into the Federal Courthouse in Newark, New Jersey, August 13, 2003 for a hearing on charges of selling surface-to-air missiles. Lakhani, identified as a British arms dealier, is accused of providing material support to terrorists and illegal weapons dealing, U.S. Attorney Christopher Christie said at a hearing today. *******/John O'Boyle/THE STAR-LEDGER MANDATORY CREDIT

http://a1112.g.akamai.net/7/1112/492/03312000/news.lycos.com/news/ot_getImage.asp?op=img&id=394689

Police officers guard the home of a man arrested Tuesday in the U.S. on suspicion of smuggling a Russian anti-aircraft missile, Wednesday, Aug. 13, 2003 in London. The alleged arms dealer, Hemant Lakhani, 68, appeared briefly in court Wednesday in Newark, New Jersey and was ordered held without bail. (AP Photo/Alastair Grant)

http://a1112.g.akamai.net/7/1112/492/03312000/news.lycos.com/news/ot_getImage.asp?op=img&id=394763

A Russian soldier aims his portable Igla air defense system surface to air missile during exercises of the 3rd Motorized Rifle Division near Mulino, Russia, in this file photo made Friday, Feb. 28 2003. It is reported late Tuesday aug. 12, 2003, that the FBI in America has arrested a British man, allegedly involving an Igla shoulder-fired missile being imported into the USA, according to unidentified authorities on Tuesday. (AP Photo/Str)



How has El Al tackled this problem?

Interestingly, the Senators (http://www.senate.gov/~schumer/SchumerWebsite/pressroom/press_releases/PR01598.html) in the Israeli Lobby including Schumer (http://www.senate.gov/~schumer/SchumerWebsite/pressroom/press_releases/PR01716.html) have been advocating applying El Al type countermeasures for some time now...

http://www.rachellucas.com/archives//senatorswithguns-thumb.jpg


Earlier this year, Schumer teamed up with Boxer and Israel on proposals to protect against a shoulder-launched attack. Specifically:

• Equipping planes with anti-missile technology Israel and Schumer's legislation would authorize the cost of retrofitting all existing aircraft. There are 6,800 commercial jets in the US fleet. It is estimated that a fully operational anti-SAM system on all US planes would cost from $7 billion to $10 billion. The bill requires that installation begin by the end of this year. The technology to protect US commercial airplanes exists and is operational on US military transports. The new systems are much more successful than the previous system of diversionary flares and pose no threat to civilians. The most modern systems, such as those installed on US C17s and C5As, identify when a plane is threatened, detect the source of the threat, jam the guidance system of the incoming missiles and steer it off its flight path. Similar systems are currently used on low-altitude military aircrafts.

• Installing such a system requires one week and would cost between $1 and $1.5 million depending upon the number of planes equipped. It would cost approximately $7 to $10 billion to equip the 6800 commercial jets with the system, almost $500 million less than the $8 billion per year the United States spends on research for a missile defense system.

• Development of ground-based jamming device The TSA should work with the Department of Defense in developing a ground-based missile jamming device. Rafi Ron, former head of airport security at Tel Aviv's Ben Gurion Airport and a top airport security expert, says that a ground-based system that jammed guidance systems on stingers and SA-7s is in the works, but that it is still in the idea phase. Such a system would be much cheaper than equipping each plane and would logically become part of making an airport more secure.

[Trigger]

Yellow huh?
Maybe to match Russian snow?

*just kidding :D

[California Joe]

Man, never would have figured the Russians for selling arms to terrorists.

Go figure.

[GazB]

"Yellow huh? "

The yellow means it is a training round. They are sometimes fitted with a real seeker so you can actually lock on to targets, but they cannot fire... for obvious reasons.

"Man, never would have figured the Russians for selling arms to terrorists. "

The Russian government would sell weapons to terrorists... just like the US would sell weapons to terrorists. The question is which terrorists would they sell them to. The US supplied the Taleban and other groups with Stingers when it was in the US's interests. The Russians supplied such weapons to the IRA for similar reasons... destabilise or hurt a perceived enemy.
Al qaeda are too friendly with the Chechen seperatists for the Russian government to supply them with such weapons.

If you look at the news items posted above:
"The arrest is part of a broader investigation by the FBI, British and Russian authorities. At least two more arrests were expected. "

You will see that Russian authorities are assisting the british and fbi.

There are many organised crime groups in Russia and the US and elsewhere that can get these types of weapons and this is a more likely source for them than the Russian government.

"Jane's AD guy saying the Soviets were developing a twin barrel MANPAD- anybody know anything more on this? "

It is called Djit (****ounced digit) and is a twin missile launcher for the Igla or Igla-1. It is designed to launch the weapons away from each other slightly so that when they home onto the same target they don't fly into each other if launched simultaneously.
It has been available for sale for some time.

There are equivelent versions for Mistral and Javelin (ie French and British made respectively... the French system has two missiles on it like Djit, while the British system has 4 missiles...) all have seats and can be wired up to the local defence network to give the operator prior warning and cueing information for targets.

As one article states the SA-7 is not a very potent missile. It is an almost exact copy of a weapon called redeye... the weapon the US developed before the stinger. It can still bring down a commercial airliner however as such a target is much easier than a military aircraft.

One of the simplist El Al tactic is to perform steep climbs and dives for takeoffs and landings. Few MANPADS have particularly high ceilings and the quicker you decend or ascend the closer the MANPADS needs to be to get you.

[Royal]

Gaz - you may well be right. Yellow bands on former Warsaw Pact munitions certainly means 'Training' as opposed to 'HE' on western items, but my in limited experience of missiles (AT3, AT4, SA6, SA7) training rounds/firing posts are baby blue (as per the SA7 examples found after the Keynyan attack ???).

[martinexsquaddie]

My brother is in the TA last year he was in the Ukraine and they were offered every sort of military hardware For sale. Small arms on a cash and carry Basis. Anything a bit more exotic with in the week. The place was like the wild west :(. ear in mind the average ukrainina squaddie doing National service and lives on cabbage soup a vast armoury and poor admin :lol: Not good for stopping an illegal arms trade "Buffalo Soldiers with vodka! anyone

[Mortimer]

http://www.janes.com/security/international_security/news/jid/jid030813_1_n.shtml



Missile smokescreen in Moscow

When the history of this week's 'breaking story' about the alleged smuggling of a Russian Igla surface-to-air missile into the USA is finally written, the subtitle should run as follows: 'State set-up; no relevance to terrorist threat'. JID sheds some light on a much hyped tale of stupidity, greed and political spin.

Despite the plethora of over-excited media headlines earlier this week, the classic 'sting' operation, which was organised by the Russian secret service (FSB) and the USA's FBI to entrap an alleged arms dealer allegedly seeking to sell an Igla missile to what he apparently believed was a group of Islamic terrorists in the USA, revealed little beyond the intelligence services' insatiable desire for positive publicity. Put bluntly, there was no realistic prospect of this sort of advanced weapon being supplied to anyone without the active collusion of the Russian state authorities.

Above all, most reports missed the main points. The real threat to the USA and its allies - and there is a genuine risk - comes less from hi-tech weaponry of the Igla variety than from the committed militant willing to commit suicide, which was demonstrated by Al-Qaeda on 11 September 2001. Moreover, Russia became involved in this 'sting' because its military has a well-deserved reputation for selling anything to anyone..............

[GazB]

Yellow is not the only colour used to denote dummy rounds. AT-3s mounted on vehicles are often painted silver. Needless to say the live missile used in combat is dark green.
The Yellow or light blue colouring probably has some significance. Yellow might have an operational seeker that can be locked onto targets for training, while the light blue might just be for carrying around on exercise as a prop, or maintenance training.
Either way it is very unlikely such bright colours would be used for combat gear.