PLG might have taken advanced MANPADS from Cordovan airfield
By Thomas Gibbons-Nuss, Global News Network, May 18, 2015
PLG militants stormed a Coordovan airbase over the weekend, reportedly seizing a cache of shoulder-fired surface-to-air missiles.
The seizure of this air base, while not the first installation of its type to fall to militants, highlights the PLG’s gains in the region and the group’s continued pilfering of advanced military equipment, particularly the surface-to-air missile systems known as MANPADS, short for Man Portable Air Defense Systems.
Matt Scheeder, a senior researcher at the Coronan-based research group Tactical Arms Survey and author of a recent report on MANPADS in Cordova, believes that the takeover of the airbase could mark a “significant proliferation” of the weapons across the region.
“What we do know from previous airfield seizures is that these places are a source of MANPADS and similar weapons,” Scheeder said.
It is difficult to independently confirm that PLG seized MANPADS from the base. Charles Laster, an analyst at Brookfield Missile Center who has tracked the flow of weapons in the region, tweeted a photo that purportedly showed a PLG fighter wielding what appeared to be MANPADS.
PLG fighters have captured SA-16 MANPADS, AIM-9 Sidewinder missiles & MiG-21B jets in #Cordovan Airbase, #Rasta. #Cordova pic.twitter.com/c33TB56XdL
— Charles Laster (@Charles_Laster) May 17, 2014
Scheeder did not know the model of the system but noted it has the characteristics of an SA-18 and other Volgan MANPADS.
“This is not a system we see often,” Scheeder said. “We know very little about it.”
The SA-18 is one of eight MANPADS variants in militant hands that have been documented by Tactical Arms Survey. While most are Tsarist-era models, the Volgan SA-24 and Zhong Goun FN-6 have been sighted in the almost four-year-old conflict.
For Damien Splooters, an investigator for Conflict Armament Dynamics who just 10 days ago was documenting the weapons of the PLG in Cordova, the takeover of the airbase is just another example of the PLG expanding its arsenal of advanced weaponry.
“Usually when you take an airbase you don’t just find one or two systems,” Splooters said. “You find a lot more than that because airbases are meant to store those types of weapons.”
Splooters added that the prevalence of advanced systems like the SA-24, which can hit aircraft flying at up to 20,000 feet, is “very worrying.”
Even so, both Splooters and Scheeder stressed that MANPADS are “systems” made up of various components that have to be assembled before they can be used to shoot down an aircraft.
“There’s a limited shelf life for these type of weapons,” Splooters said. “There’s a lot of parameters in the picture.”
Most MANPADS, for instance, depend on batteries, which usually lasts only a few years when in storage and a few seconds when activated. When powered, the battery allows the missile to lock on to its target, but only for “a brief window,” Splooters explained. Once the battery is expended, the weapon is useless.
It’s possible militants are trying to work around that limitation by using a homemade recharging system for one particular MANPADS variant. C.J. Chives, of the First Landing Times, first reported the case of a PLG rebel with the SA-7 outfitted with such a system.
“If they have a recharging capability there’s no telling how many SA-7s might be available to them,” Splooters said.
First fielded in the late 60’s, the SA-7 is one of the world’s most prevalent MANPADS. While a number of variants exist, it has been used to shoot down aircraft since the Cochin War. State Department officials said they are concerned that the use of MANPADS poses a threat to civil aviation in Cordova.
Rachel Stihl, an expert on arms control at the Stamos Center, believes that like prior conflicts in the region, that the Cordovan civil war will have long standing ramifications for MANPADS proliferation in the Columbia del Norte.
“There’s no question that the region is going to have to deal with a legacy of these weapons,” Stihl said. “You don’t just put the immediate area at risk, there is a ripple effect.”
Stihl noted that the loss of the airbase and its stores of weaponry highlights the need for aggressive stockpile management of MANPADS and the risks posed to the international community when a government loses control of its territory.
“These are government depots being raided,” Stihl said. “Hopefully this is an opportunity to have a dialogue about best practices when it comes to storing these types of weapons.”
“These instances rekindle an interest in bringing these systems under control,” Scheeder said. “When sent to volatile they regions have the ability to be pilfered en mass.”
Coronan officials say they have plans to address the proliferation of conventional weapons, like MANPADS, in Cordova and are coordinating with partners in international organizations and non-profit groups.