lemontree

That assumption is a bit extreme. If people remember in 1987 there was a major explosion/fire in an ammo dump near Lahore. This ammo dump contained a major portion of the MANPADS that had not been handed over to the Mujahids. The PA was not returning them to the CIA and so it was taken out.

__________________

Cheers!...on the rocks!!

Ray

__________________


"Some have learnt many Tricks of sly Evasion, Instead of Truth they use Equivocation, And eke it out with mental Reservation, Which is to good Men an Abomination."

I don't have to attend every argument I'm invited to.

HAKUNA MATATA

TopHatter

I've heard conflicting conclusions drawn about US aid - especially the Stingers - and how it affected the Soviets.

Anybody in the know got a few paragraphs they can spill?

__________________
If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader.
~John Quincy Adams

troung

They had already made up their minds to leave before the first Stinger was sent.

Swift Sword

That 2 out of 3 figure is just something I heard so I figured I would see what you guys that know more about the subject thought of it.

Incidentally, here is another figure I heard when I go to asking around about MANPADS proliferation:

Submitted for fact check:

I asked a guy who would be in a good postion to know just how many MANPADS were out there floating around in the hands of non government actors (e.g. terrorists, freedom fighters, random bandits, etc., etc.). His answer was 12,000 to 15,000. He did stipulate that this is a total figure over a couple of decades and includes SA7 and Stingers that are beyond their service life as well as Blowpipe, Javelin and a variety of Chinese and Russian types. Does this sound like a good figure to ya'll?

I did a little Googleage and found some useful information:

An article from Jane's with an interesting table:

http://www.janes.com/security/intern...1128_1_n.shtml

Some stuff from the FAS on MANPADS proliferation but the page has a lot of interesting links:

http://www.fas.org/asmp/campaigns/MANPADS/MANPADS.html

Incidentally, anybody here read a book by a guy named Cox called "SAM 7"?

Cox is/was some sort of aviation analyst who wrote the book (a novel) in the 1970s. The plot line involves a DC10 being shot down over London by terrorists with a SAM7. Not a bad read and seemed to be well thought out and technically accurate. It might make a good addtion to your GWOT homework reading list.

I lent my copy to a B757 pilot who wanted to learn more about the threat but he passed it on and it has not come back yet.

__________________
Pharoh was pimp but now he is dead. What are you going to do today?