MANPADS, an imminent threat
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עברית (Hebrew)
Man portable air defense systems (MANPADS) were transferred from Syria to some terror groups, thereby posing an immediate threat to civil and military aircraft in many countries.
Israeli sources say that the shoulder launched missiles that have been taken by terror groups in Syria are very advanced and pose high risk to civil and military aircraft.
According to a recent report some “armed groups” in Syria have laid their hands on an unknown number of man portable air defense systems (MANPADS)
The Report by the Swiss Small Arms Survey research group was released just hours after the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) issued a notice to US airlines banning all flights in Syrian airspace.
The FAA said armed extremists in Syria are “known to be equipped with a variety of anti-aircraft weapons which have the capability to threaten civilian aircraft”.
The FAA had previously warned against flights over Syria, but had not prohibited them until now.
Yiftah Shapir, head of the Middle East Military Balance Project at the Israel-based Institute for national security studies (INSS), said that according to his information, the MANPDS in the hands of the terrorist groups in Syria that may have smuggled some of them out of the war torn country, are Russian and Chinese made.
Shapir said that the systems are probably the IGLA S (SA-24) Russian made system and the QW-1 Chinese made system.
“These families of shoulder launched missiles are very dangerous, mainly because they are immune against many of the countermeasures that are being operated today”
The researcher said that there are some variants of the two systems and they are a big danger to both civil and military aircraft.
Israeli Air force (IAF) aircraft operating in the zones near Syria and Lebanon are operating countermeasures in every mission.
