Libyan SAMs available on Sinai black market since shortly after the 2011 regime change
Last edited Mon Nov 2, 2015, 04:09 PM - Edit history (2)
As early as October 2011, western news organizations reported that Libyan surface to air missiles and other sophisticated weapons became available on the black market in the Sinai, and at dozens of other convenient locations, to anyone with ready cash. There is no reason to believe that all the SAMs looted from Libyan stocks were small, shoulder launched Stinger or SA-7 type missiles with limited range and altitude. In fact, many large SAMs ended being used by various militias, as is shown below. http://www.npr.org/2011/10/13/141303842/libyan-guns-pour-into-egypt-sinai-residents-arm-themselves
For those who say that it's somehow impossible for ISIS or another group to shoot down an airliner at 31K feet, consider that the Libyan military had hundreds or thousands of full-size anti-aircraft missiles before it was regime changed by the U.S. Most of these have never been accounted for and ended up in the hands of various militias and on the black market. Check this out: Libya’s missing missiles find their way to Sinai’s black market in Egypt, Thursday, 13 October 2011, http://www.alarabiya.net/articles/2011/10/13/171620.html
Not like this sort of thing couldn't have been, OR WASN'T anticipated at CIA and DOS.
See, CNN, Does al Qaeda have some Libyan missiles?
By Paul Cruickshank and Tim Lister, CNN
March 30, 2011 9:48 p.m. EDT
(CNN Caption: These surface-to-air missile were left at an abandoned Libyan air force base in the dissident-held city ofTobruk in eastern Libya on February 24.)
The danger that looted Libyan anti-aircraft missiles of all types pose to commercial airliners was recognized early on by NATO: NATO concern over ‘10,000 lost missiles’ in Libya: report Sunday, 02 October 2011 http://www.alarabiya.net/articles/2011/10/02/169767.html
News weekly Der Spiegel reported on its website that Admiral Giampaolo di Paola, who chairs the committee of NATO military chiefs, held a secret briefing for German MPs on Monday, in which he expressed the alliance’s concerns.
The weapons could end up in other countries and in the wrong hands, the admiral said, according to Spiegel, “anywhere from Kenya to Kunduz” in Afghanistan.
The missiles present “a serious threat to civil aviation,” the Italian admiral reportedly said.
http://spioenkop.blogspot.com/2015/07/libya-dawn-going-diy-s-125-sams-used-as.html
Libya Dawn going DIY: S-125 SAMs used as surface-to-surface missiles and mounted on T-62 tanks
The ever demanding combat environment of the Libyan battlefield has forced parties on all sides to resort to using their creativity to find new use for once abandoned and neglected systems, and in so doing spawned a host of interesting contraptions already, such as those that resulted from the Libyan National Army and Libya Dawn mounting AK-230 and Oerlikon GDF naval cannons on trucks. As the conflict still appears to be far from reaching a conclusion, such DIY continue to see the light of day, as is witnessed by the inception of another improvised mobile surface-to-surface missile system by Libya Dawn.
Libya Dawn, which has put effort into basing 2K12 SAMs converted to the surface-to-surface role on Italian Puma 6x6s as well as adapting S-125 SAMs to do the same from towed launchers in April this year, now appears to have continued this path of development, despite little positive results on the capabilities of these systems. The new mobile system, using a T-62 Model 1972 as Transporter Erector Launcher (TEL) as a basis and a single modified S-125 mounted on top of the cupola as its main ordnance. The conversion of 2K12 SAMs to the surface-to-surface role on an Italian Puma 6x6 can be seen pictured below.
In control of Libya's capital Tripoli as well as Misrata, Libya Dawn is the largest operator of T-62s in Libya, having used the tanks in various battles, including those near Tripoli. The mainstay of Libya's T-62 fleet was operated by the Hamza battalion in Misrata before the revolution, during which the base it was operating from was struck by the NATO-led coalition. It now provides Libya Dawn with tens of T-62s in operational condition and a host of others in various states of decay that can be cannibalised for spare parts.
( . . .)
Libya Dawn is not the first to meddle with converting surface-to-air missiles for other roles; Ba'athist Iraq experimented with the same concept near the end of the Iran-Iraq War, with unsatisfactory results. More on this project can be read here.
( . . .)
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