Police in the American state of Florida have been handed a surface-to-air missile launcher at a gun exchange.Any bets its a 1-time-use only disposable rocket launcher, the kind with a 350 meter maximum range, about half that against moving targets, that it's not intended for surface-to-air, and is now just an inoperable tube?
Just asking. It's not like the "authorized journalists" have filled me with awe on their assumptions.
I wonder if having military ordnance could override the generally promised "no questions asked" policy? It'd sure be problematic if the Army--or whoever this was taken from--would send out investigators.
UPDATE: Here it is--
Anybody recognize it? The Orlando Sentinel says it's "designed to blow jets out of the sky."
8 comments:
Unless I'm mistaken (and I very well could be because it is a small picture) That appears to be a TOW anti-tank round. Which means without the MGS (Missile Guidance Set) and a host of other accessories it's pretty much worthless... even if it isn't inert.
Well, it's the British media. I'm surprised they didn't give it some sort of nuclear capability. But of course shooting down airplanes is the bogeyman of the moment.
I thought the same thing. This post made my day -- specifically the corrected headline. Someone please forward to the BBC, perhaps with a hand-drawn diagram of a "missile" for comparison.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/6953374.stm
Like this:
]====[
...not this...
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If that is for a missile at all, it isn't a launcher, it looks like a storage tube.
Where are the electronics? The optics? The controls? Why does that end cap look like it's designed to be easily removed.
The military sells storage boxes and tubes as surplus all the time. That's where all those ammo boxes you see at gun shows come from.
I have an empty sonobuoy storage tube as a memento of my days in an anti-submarine warfare squadron. Does this mean I could use it to find and sink submarines from my livingroom???
It's a storage tube. My guess is an empty storage tube. Can't tell without seeing the rest of the tube, but it is probably a BTM 71A-3, or a practice dummy. If there's still the practice dummy in there, it would be one hell of a nice pyrotechnic, but not any more particularly different than the beefed up model rockets that hobbyists make. Without the launcher and guidance package that go with the system, it's pretty much useless.
Can we turn in inert practice grenades for cash yet?
I have an inert practice rifle grenade. Is it worth more than the kind you throw?
Next thing to be banned will be soda straws, those thing cal launch a spitball cleart across the room.
I think the next time I hear of a gun buyback,for a $50.00 gift certificate, I'm going to set up a table and offer $100.00 cash for guns.
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