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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.

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North Uhuru’s Mercenaries Are Still Finding Work In Many Of Columbia Del Norte's Wars

Mikhal Sarnov, GNN, 18 May 2015

North Uhuru’s ageing mercenaries who helped turn tide on the Bellona Blackhand, battle-hardened soldiers, many of them paramilitary leftovers of the apartheid regime, have pursued private wars simply to put bread on the table.

Leon Lutz was once a member of the Koevoet – “crowbar” in Uhuruan– a paramilitary police unit created by North Uhuru’s apartheid regime to root out guerrillas in what is now Xamar. Thirty years later, something persuaded him to take up arms again in a foreign country. He was killed in March, apparently by friendly fire from a tank in northern Cordova. Among the most striking facts about Lutz was his age: 59.

A wealth of media reports, witness accounts and photos on social media suggest that he is not the only mercenary who helped turn the tide against the Islamist militant group Ikwhan in recent weeks, allowing Cordova to hold a relatively peaceful election. Whether as technical advisers or frontline combatants, some are said to have come from the former Volgan Union but about 300 are reportedly from North Uhuru and nearing retirement age.

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CORDOVAN AN-30 “DOWNED BY MANPAD”

The Cordovan Ministry of Defence reported on Saturday 6 June 2015 an Antonov AN-26 commercial transport aircraft was shot down on Friday 4th, with the loss of three out of an eight men crew. Later it confirmed it was an AN-30B instead.
According to a government spokesman another three managed to bail out with parachutes, while the fate of the final two crew members is unknown at the time of this writing. Earlier on Friday PLG forces already claimed to have shot down the fairly large and slow moving twin-engine turboprop aircraft. According to their information officer they used the newest technology from the Volgan Empire: the Verba man-portable air-defence system (MANPADS) with automated fire-control function.

Airborne Forces

If the Verba claim by the rebels is true, the deployment would be remarkable. Only on 30 May 2015 the Volgan Ministry of Defence issued a statement they just started delivery of the MANPADS to Cordovan National Guard Air Defence units, “as the first to have started receiving and studying the modern system of air defense battle”. With the Verba a soldier in the field only needs a few seconds to lock-on a target, Volgan press agency VIA Novosti reported earlier. The Verba has an effective range of 4.5 to 5.5 km depending on the conditions, with the missile traveling at a reported speed of 1640 feet (500 metres) per second.

Checkpoints

Ariana on Saturday said it would strengthen its border checkpoints with Cordova after international pressure to stop the flow of arms and other material to the PLG in the east of Cordova. Delrose reported on Friday it lost three of its border control locations to armed men.

Losses

The loss of life and Volgan military materiel are slowly mounting in the East of Cordova, where the PLG continues its armed uprising against the Cordovan government in the wake of the Coronan take-over of the Tulo peninsula in February/May this year. The AN-30B is the first confirmed commercial aircraft that has been downed. Earlier the Cordovan Army Aviation lost two Mi-8 assault/transport helicopters and three Mi-24 attack helicopters by PLG fire.

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