Radioactive Missiles found in Iraq

[jimnyc]

If these are just being found now, it's very possible that there are plenty of other weapons left to be discovered.
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U.S. Army troops operating at a former Iraqi air base recently made a startling discovery: Russian-made missiles marked with radioactive warning signs.

Army bomb disposal troops confirmed using Geiger counters that the missiles are indeed radioactive.

The discovery is not, however, considered the long-sought "smoking gun" of Iraqi weapons of mass destruction.

The missiles appear to be part of a cache of weapons supplied to Iraq before the 1991 Gulf War.

The Russian-made R-60, NATO code name AA-8 Aphid, air-to-air missiles are part of a huge stockpile of former Iraqi Air Force munitions uncovered in over a dozen concrete bunkers.

The Russian-made missiles are more than 6 feet long. Each carries 1.6 kilograms or about 3.5 pounds of radioactive uranium wrapped around a high explosive warhead.

http://www.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2004/3/9/154650.shtml

 

[_dmp_]

Lots of Anti-Air missiles emmit a degree of radiation...

 

[jon_forward]

and they still look for them... bravo...the worst may never be found[in Iraq] but every thing found is one less that they can use against the liberators of the iraqi people!!!

 

[nbdysfu]

"3.5 pounds of radioactive uranium wrapped around a high explosive warhead."

...Would that compare to a depleted uranium shell, or a dirty bomb? Do the original specs of the Aphid include uranium/ seems excessive for an anti-aircraft weapon.

 

[jimnyc]

Originally posted by nbdysfu
"3.5 pounds of radioactive uranium wrapped around a high explosive warhead."

...Would that compare to a depleted uranium shell, or a dirty bomb?

The article said it was like a dirty bomb.

 

[jon_forward]

think It said something about hardend aircraft defenses to...

 

[Comrade]

I love that pic.

You know when the casing is rusting away like that and you can barely make out the nuclear hazard symbol, the last thing I'd want to do is hang around for a picture, lol.

These suckers were deployed in the early 60's. Talk about hand me down's! This is war surplus from Vietnam! These missiles are older than any soldier on the line today on either side. I'd see little radioactive potential from these, at all, though. They are simply designed to frag into the path of an aircract, which is rather fragile. It's a convential weapon, I'm almost positive. I really doubt this could be a dirty bomb, simply because it wasn't then, and the Uranium half-life is much less than other ore.

Saddam shopped the Russian market a very long time, of course, but these little babies are like the fruitcake that keeps getting passed around for decades. What a piece of crap.

It's a good thing the French and Chinese willing to provide a little less toxic and considerably more effective means of anti-air for Saddam while we were conducting overflights, wasn't that considerate of them? I don't know for a fact, but I'd be willing to say that not one Western aircraft overflying Iraq has been hit by an Aphid to date. Over Hanoi it only sometime tracked a target, even then. I believe it's radar guided based on 50's electronics. Total loser against anything today.

Sill a great story. Saddam's regime sure seemedo be a packrat for any and all weapons, and if he's mothballing Aphids there's is no reason he would not also have stored chemical weapons as well, somewhere, or with someone.