Live French Air-to-Air Missile Sent to Florida Company
August 20th, 2020There are many stories about this incident that don’t mention anything at all about how this could have happened. The Popular Mechanics piece below offers:
The Matra Super 530 is an older, obsolete radar-guided missile. Draken flies the French-made Mirage F1M multi-role fighter, which was equipped with the Matra Super 530 during its military service. It’s possible a live 530 was accidentally slipped into a shipment of parts purchased by Draken.
Hmm.
Via: Popular Mechanics:
A Florida airport called in the U.S. Air Force last week after discovering a live air-to-air missile. Officials at Lakeland Linder International Airport found the Matra 530 missile in a shipment to a defense contractor that uses the airport to house its fleet of fighter jets. The weapon was transferred to MacDill Air Force Base for disposal.
Authorities found the live missile in a shipment to Draken International, which specializes in providing pilots and fighter jets to fly against U.S. military pilots and air defense systems in realistic, real-world training. Draken has a fleet of 150 older jets retired from military services around the world, including the U.S., Czech Republic, South Africa, and France.
