Missing U.S. Hellfire missile located in Cuba

[Little Tich]

Source: Washington Times

One of the most advanced U.S. missiles was unintentionally shipped to Cuba in 2014, according to a report Thursday evening in the Wall Street Journal.

The Hellfire missile was supposed to be sent to Europe for a training mission, the Journal reported, cited “people familiar with the matter.”

Shipping such a sophisticated weapon to a communist dictatorship with which the U.S. at the time didn’t have diplomatic relations and has been under U.S. embargo for a half-century would be among the worst mistakes of its kind in U.S. military history, the sources said.

The Hellfire is an air-to-surface missile that acquired its name from the Pentagon’s specification for a “helicopter-launched, fire and forget” missile. It equips, among other weapons platforms, the U.S. military’s Predator drones.



Read more: http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2016/jan/7/missing-us-hellfire-missile-located-cuba/

[Little Star]

1. What the hell!

[bluedigger]

2. So we just Fed-Ex them now?

Did anyone get a receipt?

[CanonRay]

3. So what happened? Wrong f'ing zip code?

This is unbelievable.

[tazkcmo]

4. No tracking number?

Should have gone USPS.

[flamingdem]

5. Did they ship it to Guantanamo?

Did they expect Fidel to smoke it and then his beard would fall out?

What gives?

[Octafish]

7. Someone in the mailroom messed up, ya.

Forgot to fire off the right mailing label on the ol' dot matrix Labelmaker. That's the ticket.

[kacekwl]

8. Maybe we can find

the 8 billion $$$$$$ the pentagon lost next.

[AnotherDreamWeaver]

9. Anyone looking under Rummy's bed? nt

[Elmer S. E. Dump]

11. I thought it was 8 trillion.

[Scuba]

10. The solution is obvious: more money for the MIC!!!

[Grins]

12. I was in the Army and this is amazing to me.

First, why wasn't this shipped on an AF C-130? Instead it was put on Air France, which took it to Charles de Gaulle Airport and loaded it onto one of their flights to Cuba?

Second, why bring it back at all?

When I was a firing-range officer you had to sign for all the ammunition you took from the ammo point, make sure the amount they give you matches the paperwork - count it - and secure it. Worse you had to report back to the ammo point with any unexpended ammunition and count it. That was time and paperwork.

So what did we do if we had any left over? We shot it off. Report back to the ammo point and asked about the ammo, "Shot it all off, sir!" Sign the form and walk out the door.

They were on a field exercise. Why didn't they fire it off? Or give it to the Army in Germany?

Big screw-up.

[Angel Martin]

13. I don't want to be in a passenger plane

that has a hellfire missile in the baggage.

[TwilightGardener]

14. Lockheed Martin was apparently responsible for shipping it.

I don't know that it was the DoD's responsibility--the article in WSJ says the State Dept. is responsible, which is a weird law.

[tammywammy]

16. The State Dept. is in charge of the International Traffic in Arms Regulations

Which oversees the export compliance and licensing of defense articles.

[TwilightGardener]

17. Thanks, yes, that's what I read. Seems strange for the DoD not to control the movement

of things like this.

[tammywammy]

15. It was inert

Nothing to fire off.

[Blue_Tires]

18. Still the Cubans, Russians and god knows who else

have gotten a real close look at it...

[tammywammy]

19. Training models are pretty much just the outside shell.

It wouldn't have any electronics in it. Probably couldn't gleam any info that couldn't be found via Google if you had an inert item.

[MosheFeingold]

20. It's a training "round"

No warhead, no propellant.

It does, however, have the brains and sensors of the weapon.

I would presume it's then just "equipment" which gets sent like anything else.

Stupid, I agree.

[jmowreader]

21. Turns out it's an INERT missile

It's just a fiberglass replica of a live missile that the Army gives units to train with. It's the same size, shape and weight as a live missile, but the only way you could kill anyone with it is to drop it on their heads.

The big question is, why did a US-based company ship something to a US military organization on a French-owned airplane?