Britain secretly buys Russian surface-to-air missiles ...

Britain has secretly bought dozens of sophisticated Russian surface-to-air missiles, some of which are believed to have fallen into terrorist hands, to develop counter measures against them.

There are significant fears that the weapon, which can be packed into a golf bag and assembled and fired very rapidly by one person with minimal training, will be targeted at civil and military aircraft. There are fears that insurgents in Iraq are armed with the missiles. Defence experts have spent the past year experimenting with the shoulder-launched missile in order to protect British aircraft and service personnel.

Britain used arms dealers experienced in the Russian market to approach a state-owned arms manufacturer to purchase the system. The missiles and launchers were imported into Britain in an estimated £2.8 million deal.

Ministry of Defence scientists and gunners from the Royal Artillery have test-fired them at UK bases. Britain is thought to be trying to buy another batch of missiles and the test results will be pooled with the Americans.

The SAM flies higher, farther and faster and homes in on images as well as heat, making it capable of taking out Cruise missiles in flight.

It is very rugged, able to survive being submerged in water for 30 minutes or dropped on to a concrete surface from six feet. It is the ideal weapon for terrorists, who "no doubt" have some in their armoury, according to defence sources.

Earlier versions of the SAM were responsible for destroying at least eight American and British aircraft in the 1991 Gulf war, an American F16 in Kosovo in 1999 and a Russian Mi-26 helicopter, killing 121 troops it was carrying in Chechnya in 2002.

Fear of flying could cripple the commercial aviation industry and paralyse the economy if an American airliner is destroyed by a shoulder-launched missile, the Rand Corporation, an independent think-tank, reported this year.

In the 1980s, the CIA gave SA-7s to the mujahideen in Afghanistan to fight the Soviets.

Originally posted by Sugarlump
your attempts to make westerners seem inferior just further highlight your inabillity to understand the true basics of modern technological one upmanship...

Originally posted by Sugarlump
err seek methinks the grail is not what the brits bought... however in any case the CIA was known to pay for yellow rain rpg-7 rounds and other goodies during the afghani conflict... one would think the chechen Low Intensity Warfare deal and our own Iraqi conflagration would be ripe fodder for serious reverse engineering blow outs... it's only common sense.

stealthspy,

My only salient or semi nice comment is DUH ... why wouldn't they use any means necessary to acquire frontline russian milspec so as to be able to develop work arounds and definitive performance profiles? your attempts to make westerners seem inferior just further highlight your inabillity to understand the true basics of modern technological one upmanship...

Even with my admittedly scathing and derogatory opinion of my own ruling american regime I do realize that the only thing they are doing by acquiring by hook or crook frontline russian tech is deciding what to finally declassify enough to actually put on front line systems. if you don't then more power to us may you reap what your ignorance and short sighteded xenophobia sew

Originally posted by PlausibleDeniability
The article says one of these missles was used to down a helicopter and killing over a hundred troops inside.

Is that correct? I've never heard of a helicopter being able to carry that many people.

Just out of curiousity...

Originally posted by PlausibleDeniability
The article says one of these missles was used to down a helicopter and killing over a hundred troops inside.
Is that correct? I've never heard of a helicopter being able to carry that many people.

Originally posted by mad scientist
There is footage of it here, the Mil-26 carries up to 20 tonnes of payload.

www.abovetopsecret.com...

Originally posted by longbow
No. No helicopter can carry 100 people. The largest US helicopter is Sea Stallion with over 50 soldiers. Russians have bigger Mi-26, but it cannot carry 100 people too.

There are 40 fold-down seats along the cargo bay, and 60 more seats can be fitted in the center aisle of the cargo bay.

The number of lives lost in the August 19th helicopter crash in Chechnya has reached 115 as yet another crash survivor died at the hospital of the North Caucasian Military District. The helicopter, a Mi-26 troop-carrier, had been heading for the Russian military base in Khankala with 140 servicemen on board.

Originally posted by Senor Freebie
The US Navy bought R-77 missiles to use outside US territory (due to laws in the constitution not allowing use of foreign made weapons on US soil). This was done in order to help deal with long range targets between the cancellation of the AIM-54 and the introduction of the AMRAAM-D. The R-77's long range when compared to any current US missile was cited as the reason for the purchase.

Originally posted by Senor Freebie
Do your research before you come to that conclusion. Not only does the sale make sense but the article I read on it included official statements from Vympel and the US Navy.

If you still think its BS ask yourself this; how does the US Navy plan on maintaining fleet defence when its maximum missile range on aircraft went from 185km to 48km with the retirement of the AIM-54 pheonix and if this is an acceptable hole in their defence umbrella why are they developing the AMRAAM-D with a range in excess of 100km solely for use by F/A-18's?